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O 


LOWELL, 


AS  IT  WAS,  AND  ^S  IT  IS. 


BY 


REV.   HENRY   A.   MILES. 


"Art  is  the  handmaid  of  human  good." 


LOWELL: 
POWERS    AND    BAGLEY 

AND 

N.    L.    DAYTON. 
1845. 


CONTENTS. 


A  Lowell  Cotton  Mill, 76 

Lowell  Calico  Printing, 84 

A  Lowell  Woollen  Mill, 94 

A  Lowell  Carpet  Mill, 97 

Hours  of  Labor, 101 

Wages, ••  -  Ill 

Provisions  for  the  Comfort  and  Health  of  the  Ope- 
ratives,   116 

Moral  Police  of  the  Corporation, 128 

Boarding-house  Statistics, 146 

MHl  Statistics, 162 

Moral  and  Intellectual  Advantages, 194 

Churches.- .  •  •. 197 

Schools, 200 

City  Library,  - • 201 

Lowell  Offering, 202 

Savings'  Bank, 204 

Lowell  Institute. • 205 

Ministry  at  Large, 206 

Lowell  Hospital, 207 

Lowell  Dispensary, 208 

Howard  Benevolent  Society, 209 

Lowell  Cemetery, 209 

Conclusion, 211 

APPENDIX. 

Francis  Cabot  Lowell, •  -217 

Paul  Moody, • 225 

Kirk  Boott, 228 

Warren  Colburn, 231 

Luther  Lawrence, 233 

Robert  Means, 234 

o — 6 


PREFACE. 


THE  unexampled  growth  of  the  city  of  Lowell 
gives  interest  to  some  notice  of  the  successive 
steps  by  which  it  has  attained  to  its  present  impor- 
tance, of  the  extent  of  its  manufacturing  opera- 
tions, and  of  the  actual  condition  of  its  industrious 
population.  An  unsettled  territory  of  pasture 
and  meadow  has,  within  the  memory  of  the  mid- 
dle-aged, been  covered  with  substantial  edifices, 
mills,  stores,  churches,  blocks  of  houses,  the  pros- 
perous homes  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  people; 
thus  almost  realizing  the  creations  of  some  orien- 
tal fable,  at  least  emulating  in  a  few  years  what,  in 
other  places,  has  been  the  slow  growth  of  centu- 


PREFACE. 


From  the  size  of  this  book  the  reader  will  not 
expect  any  thing  more  than  what  the  brief  time 
allowed  the  author  permitted  him  to  prepare — a 
work  which,  without  the  minuteness  of  a  history, 
will  yet  supply  the  information  which  all  visitors 
to  this  city  wish  to  obtain.  To  the  citizens  and 
operatives  of  Lowell,  likewise,  it  is  hoped  that  this 
book  will  not  be  without  value.  Following  a  rapid 
sketch  of  the  growth  of  this  place,  there  will  be 
found  a  variety  of  statistical  facts,  collected  from 
the  Agents,  the  Overseers,  the  Operatives,  and 
the  Matrons  of  the  boarding-houses.  On  this  por- 
tion of  the  book  much  the  most  care  has  been 
bestowed.  The  great  questions  relating  to  Lowell 
are  those  which  concern  the  health  and  character 
of  its  laboring  classes.  It  is  believed  that  more 
full  and  precise  information  on  these  points  is 
given  in  the  following  pages,  than  has  ever  before 
been  published.  The  object  constantly  kept  in 


PREFACE.  7 

view  has  been,  not  the  statement  of  opinions  and 
impressions,  but  that  careful  presentation  of  facts 
which  will  enable  a  stranger  to  judge  for  himself. 

It  is  singular  that  a  place,  not  yet  twenty-five 
years  old,  should  already  have  fabulous  stories 
mingled  with  its  history.  Yet  such  is  the  case. 
The  accounts  which  have  been  published  of  the 
chance  discovery  of  the  water-power  at  Pawtucket 
Falls  by  a  sportsman,  and  of  the  report  of  an  en- 
gineer, subsequently  made,  that  there  was  no 
water-power  here,  are  wholly  without  foundation. 
Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  arrive  at  an  exact 
knowledge  of  the  facts  respecting  the  origin  of 
Lowell,  and  it  is  known  that  they  are  correctly 
stated  in  this  book. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  following  pages,  im- 
portant assistance  has  been  received  from  Patrick 
T.  Jackson,  Esq.,  from  Dr.  E.  Hobbs,  of  Waltham, 
from  the  Agents  of  the  Corporations  in  this  city, 


8  PREFACE. 


and  from  other  sources  indicated  in  the  course  of 
the  work.  Independent  of  the  gratification  of  a 
natural  curiosity  respecting  the  rise  and  progress 
of  one  of  the  greatest  enterprises  of  the  age,  the 
present  publication  will  answer  a  more  palpably 
useful  purpose,  if  it  shall  recommend,  to  other 
manufacturing  towns  and  cities,  that  well  devised 
system,  and  careful  moral  regime^  which  have  here 
been  established. 

LOWELL,  1845. 


LOWELL, 

AS  IT  WAS,  AND  AS  IT  IS. 


INDIAN  HISTORY. 

THE  place  where  the  waters  of  the  Merri- 
mack  and  Concord  rivers  meet,  had  a  greater 
relative  importance  two  hundred  years  ago, 
than  at  any  subsequent  time,  prior  to  the  in- 
troduction of  cotton  manufactures.  It  was  the 
head  quarters  of  one  of  the  five  great  tribes 
of  Indians  which  were  found  in  New  England. 
The  Sachemship  of  the  Pawtuckets  extended 
to  the  north  and  northeast  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  including  all  of  the  territory  which  is 
now  the  State  of  New  Hampshire.  This  was 


o 

10  INDIAN    HISTOKT 

inhabited  by  a  tribe  numbering  twelve  thou- 
sand souls;  and  Wamesit,  their  "capital,"  was 
at  the  confluence  of  the  above  named  rivers. 

This  spot  was  dear  to  the  natives  on  ac- 
count of  its  supply  of  fish.  Salmon,  shad, 
alewives,  and  sturgeon,  were  easily  taken  in 
vast  quantities ;  and  the  abundance  of  the 
latter  fish  gave  the  name  "Merrimack"  to 
the  river  so  called ;  the  meaning  of  that  word 
being  "sturgeon,"  in  the  Indian  tongue. 

Here,  as  early  as  1653,  John  Eliot,  the 
celebrated  "Apostle  to  the  Indians,"  came, 
spending  many  days,  and  preaching  to  the 
natives.  Here  courts  were  held  annually,  in 
the  month  of  May,  by  an  English  magistrate, 
assisted  by  some  Indian  chiefs.  They  arbitra- 
ted upon  all  questions  in  dispute  between  the 
Indians  and  the  white  settlers,  who,  in  the 
year  above  named,  laid  out  the  plantation  of 
Chelmsford.  The  first  court  in  Middlesex 
County  was  held  on  land  through  which  the 


—  p 

INDIAN    HISTORY.  11 


Boott  Canal  now  passes;  and  tradition  says, 
that  the  log  church,  where  Eliot  used  to 
preach,  stood  on  the  height  of  land  on  Apple- 
ton  Street. 

But  here,  as  in  other  places,  the  native 
sons  of  the  forest  passed  away  rapidly  before 
the  advancing  civilization  of  the  English  colo- 
nists. From  a  population  of  three  thousand 
souls,  which  it  numbered  when  first  discovered 
by  the  white  settlers,  Wamesit  was  reduced 
by  1674  to  only  two  hundred  and  fifty  men, 
besides  women  and  children.  These  held,  as 
their  exclusive  possession,  the  identical  soil 
which  is  now  the  territory  of  Lowell.  The 
bounds  of  the  old  Indian  "capital,"  and  of 
the  present  city,  singularly  coincide.  A  ditch, 
running  in  a  semicircular  line,  striking  the 
Merrimack  River  a  little  above  the  Paw- 
tucket  Falls,  and  again  about  a  mile  below 
the  mouth  of  the  Concord  River,  and  em- 
bracing twenty-five  hundred  acres,  was,  with 


—  o 


12  INDIAN   HISTORY. 

the  Merrimack  River  itself,  the  ancient  bound- 
ary of  Wamesit.  This  varies  but  inconsid- 
erably from  the  line  and  extent  of  Lowell. 
This  Indian  ditch,  probably  thrown  up  in 
1665,  is  distinctly  traceable  to  this  day. 

Ere  long  the  natives  wholly  disappeared. 
Their  lands  west  of  the  Concord  River  were 
given  up  in  1686,  and  in  1726  their  right  to 
the  land  east  of  that  river  became  extinct. 
The  only  memorials  they  have  left  here,  are 
the  names  of  our  river  and  waterfalls,  the 
ditch  above  noticed,  and  some  excavated  im- 
plements of  their  rude  workmanship.  East 
Chelmsford,  or  Chelmsford  Neck,  as  this  place 
was  called,  lost  all  its  former  consequence. 
Situated  at  the  corners  of  other  towns,  it  con- 
tained nothing  but  a  few  farm-houses,  a  tavern, 
and  store.  Its  fishing  privileges  still  possessed 
great  value.  At  certain  seasons  of  the  year 
the  mouth  of  the  Concord  River  appeared  to 
be  almost  literally  full  of  fish.  There  are 


FIRST    CANAL.  lo 


those  now  living,  who  have  seen  one  thousand 
shad  taken  at  one  haul,  from  a  basin  of  water 
since  filled  up,  and  now  the  site  of  the  large 
Mill  of  the  Middlesex  Company.  Down  as 
late  as  1820,  there  were  caught,  mostly  at 
this  spot  and  at  the  foot  of  Pawtucket  Falls, 
twenty-five  hundred  barrels  of  salmon,  shad 
and  alewives,  besides  many  other  fish  of  less 
value. 


FIRST   CANAL 

Ever  since  the  settlement  of  the  country, 
much  rafting  business  has  been  done  on  the 
Merrimack  River.  Its  shores  were  covered 
with  a  forest,  which  furnished  timber,  lumber 
and  fuel,  and  it  soon  became  an  important 
object  to  float  this  down  to  Newburyport, 
either  for  shipbuilding  there,  or  for  transpor- 
tation to  other  places.  The  chief  difficulty 


14  FIRST    CANAL. 

attending  this,  was  the  passage  of  the  Paw- 
tucket  Falls.  Here  was  a  descent  of  thirty- 
two  feet  —  not  perpendicular,  but  over  several 
rapids,  in  circuitous  channels,  with  a  violent 
current,  and  amidst  sharp-pointed  rocks.  To 
accomplish  this  descent  with  rafts  was  danger- 
ous when  the  river  was  swollen,  and  was  labo- 
orious  when  the  river  was  low ;  and  this  fact 
suggested  the  plan  of  a  canal  round  the  falls, 
by  which  the  descent  might  be  easily  made. 
Accordingly  an  act  was  passed,  June  27, 
1792,  incorporating  Dudley  Atkins  Tyng, 
William  Coombs,  Joseph  Tyler,  Nicholas 
Johnson,  and  Joshua  Carter,  and  such  others 
as  might  join  them,  into  "  a  body  politic  and 
corporate  forever,  by. the  name  of  the  Pro- 
prietors of  Locks  and  Canals  on  Merrimack 
River,"  with  the  usual  powers  granted  to  canal 
companies. 

They  soon   commenced   operations..    They 
laid  out  the  course  of  a  canal  from  a  point 


FIRST    CANAL.  15 


on  the  southern  shore  of  Merrimack  River, 
just  above  the  falls,  and  passing  round  them 
at  a  sweep  of  about  a  mile  in  distance,  en- 
tered the  Concord  River,  a  few  rods  above 

its  junction  with  the  Merrimack.     The  canal 

/ 
was  one  mile  and  a  half  in  length,  and  four 

locks  accomplished  the  descent  of  thirty-two 
feet.  The  whole  expenditure  was  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  first  boat  passed  through 
the  canal  in  1797.  An  incident  which  then, 
occurred  is  well  remembered  by  many  now 
living.  This  being  the  first  canal  that  was 
built  in  this  country,  hundreds  of  both  sexes 
and  of  all  ages  had  assembled  to  witness  the 
passage  of  the  first  boat.  They  stood  around 
and  upon  the  first  lock ;  and  as  soon  as  the 
boat,  containing  the  directors  and  invited  gen- 
j  tlemen,  had  entered  the  lock,  its  sides  sud- 
denly gave  way.  Spectators  and  voyagers 
both  were  submerged,  and  were  carried  with 
great  violence  down  the  stream.  Fortunately 


16  FIRST    CANAL. 


no  life  was  lost.  This  inauspicious  beginning 
was  attended  with  consequences  no  more  seri- 
ous than  an  unexpected  bath,  and  a  great 
fright. 

The  stock  of  this  canal  was  divided  into 
five  hundred  shares,  the  owners  of  which 
were  scattered  throughout  Middlesex  and 
Essex  counties.  It  proved  to  be  poor  prop- 
erty. Its  value  was  greatly  diminished  by 
the  bolder  enterprise  of  the  Middlesex  Canal, 
connecting  the  Merrimack  River,  above  the 
falls,  with  Boston  Harbor.  This  was  under- 
taken in  1793,  and  completed  in  1804. 
Much  of  the  lumber,  which  would  otherwise 
have  gone  to  Newburyport,  was  taken  directly 
to  Boston.  Hence  the  shares  of  the  Locks 
and  Canals  Company  were  easily  obtained,  at 
less  than  their  par  value,  when  it  was  pro- 
posed to  use  the  waters  of  the  canal  for  man- 
ufacturing purposes. 


EAST  CHELMSFORD.  17 


EAST  CHELMSFORD. 

Here,  then,  was  a  water  privilege  created 
without  any  great  expense  for  dams,  without 
any  danger  from  freshets,  at  a  place  already 
connected  with  Boston  by  a  canal,  on  a  tract 
of  land  which  favored  the  extensive  use  of 
the  water,  and  as  the  whole  current  of  the 
Merrimack  River  could  be  diverted  into  the 
canal,  the  available  power  was  immense.  Still 
it  does  not  appear  that  for  twenty-three  years 
the  idea  of  this  use  of  the  water  occurred  to 
any  one.  Some  humble  attempts  at  manufac- 
tures were  here  made,  under  the  auspices  of 
individual  enterprise,  and  chiefly  by  the  use 
of  the  waters  of  the  Concord  River ;  and 
these  we  must  briefly  notice,  before  we  speak 
of  the  extensive  operations  of  capitalists,  act- 
ing with  corporate  powers. 

The  interrupted  commerce  and  high  prices 

2* 


18  EAST    CHELMSFORD. 


which  attended  the  last  war  with  England, 
turned  the  attention  of  monied  men,  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  this  country,  to  manufactures.  In 
1813,  Captain  Phineas  Whiting,  and  Colonel 
Josiah  Fletcher,  erected  a  wooden  building  for 
the  manufacture  of  cotton.  It  stood  just 
above  the  spot  where  the  canal  entered  Con- 
cord River,  and  this  river  supplied  the  power 
to  operate  its  machinery.  It  was  but  a  hum- 
ble parent  of  the  substantial  and  spacious 
edifices  that  have  succeeded  it,  being  sixty 
feet  long  and  fifty  feet  wide,  and  costing  but 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars. 

In  1818,  the  above  named  gentlemen  sold 
their  factory  to  Mr.  Thomas  Hurd,  an  enter- 
prising gentleman,  of  Charlestown,  who  fitted 
it  up  for  the  manufacture  of  wool.  Pie  em- 
ployed in  all  about  twenty  persons,  introduced 
into  his  mill  sixteen  looms,  and  turned  out 
one  hundred  and  twenty  yards  of  satinet  per 
day. 


EAST    CHELMSFORD.  19 


In  the  same  year,  Mr.  Moses  Hale  intro- 
duced the  manufacture  of  gunpowder.  His 
works,  also,  were  on  the  Concord  River, 
about  a  mile  above  its  mouth.  The  next 
year  his  operations  were  extended,  and  Mr. 
William  Tileston,  of  Boston,  and  Mr.  Oliver 
M.  Whipple,  were  received  into  partnership. 
About  eighty  thousand  pounds  of  powder  were 
manufactured  per  year. 

Three  years  before  this  a  saw  and  grist 
mill  was  erected  at  Pawtucket  Falls,  and 
another  still  on  the  canal  of  the  Locks  and 
Canals  Company. 

Such  was  East  Chelmsford  in  1820.  A 
few  scattered  farm-houses,  standing,  however, 
on  good  soil,  and  occupied  by  intelligent  and 
substantial  families,  the  store,  the  tavern,  the 
humble  wooden  factory,  the  few  small  build- 
ings for  the  powder-works,  the  two  grist-mills 
—  this  was  nearly  all  that  the  place  possessed. 
The  head  of  the  canal  had  some  promise  of 


20  EAST    CHELMSFORD. 


becoming  a  flourishing  village.  There  was 
the  house  of  Captain  Phineas  Whiting ;  that 
long  occupied  by  the  Hon.  Asahel  Stearns, 
before  his  appointment  to  the  professorship  of 
Law  in  Harvard  University,  and  subsequently 
by  Nathaniel  Wright,  Esq.,  who  succeeded 
him  in  professional  practice;  the  dwelling, 
also,  of  Mr.  James  Bowers ;  and  the  houses  of 
Messrs.  John  and  Elisha  Ford.  But  business 
soon  centred  below,  and  that  part  of  the  town 
has  changed  but  little.  On  the  east  shore  of 
the  Concord  River,  in  the  town  of  Tewksbury, 
but  within  the  limits  of  what  is  now  Lowell, 
there  was  a  small  flannel-mill,  owned  and  run 
;  by  Mr.  Winthrop  Howe;  and  there  also  was 

!  the  mansion  house  of  Judge  Edward  S.  L. 

i 

Livermore,  the  pleasant  views  from  which,  and 
its  agreeable  hospitalities,  are  among  the  remin- 
iscences of  what  this  neighborhood  was  twen- 
ty-five years  ago.  But  the  time  had  now 
come  for  a  series  of  changes  to  begin,  which, 


WALTHAM,    PARKNT    <»F    LOWELL.          21 


in  the  rmnpuss  of  a  few  years,  liavr  wrought 
out  astonishing  results.  Assoeiated  power 
took  up  the  work  which  individual  enterprise 
had  feebly  attempted,  and  in  this  was  the 
origin  of  Lowell. 


WALTHAM,  THE  PARENT   OF  LOWELL. 

The  war  of  1812,  as  before  remarked,  gave 
encouragement  to  the  cotton  manufacture  in 
this  country.  A  company  of  gentlemen,  re- 
siding principally  in  Boston,  commenced,  in 
1814,  the  erection  of  factories  in  Waltham. 
With  a  capital  stock  of  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  they  made  purchases  of  land  and  mill 
privileges  on  Charles  River,  erected  three 
brick  manufactories,  and  supplied  them  with 
machinery,  comprising  eight  thousand  and 
sixty-four  spindles,  and  two  hundred  and 
thirty-one  looms.  Here  they  employed  about 


22         WALTHAM,    PARENT    OF    LOWELL. 

four  hundred  persons,  mostly  females,  working 
up  seven  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  cotton, 
and  making  two  million  yards  of  cloth  per  year. 

This  undertaking  proved  highly  successful. 
Here  was  a  demonstration  that  this  kind  of 
business  was  practicable  arid  gainful ; .  and  it 
attracted  the  attention  of  men  of  enterprise  ! 
and  wealth.     Here  also  was  originated  and  j 
matured  that  plan  of  carrying  on  the  manu-  , 
facturing  business,  which  should  properly  be  | 
called  the  "  Waltham  System."     This  system  j 
will  hereafter  be  minutely  described.     It  was 
transferred   to   Lowell,  which   thus   had   the 
benefit  of  the  experiments  and  results  of  the  ! 
elder  place.     Nor  is  this  the  extent  of  the 
obligations  which  Lowell  owes  to  Waltham. 
Her   first   machinery   was   made   there,    and 
from  there  also  came  some  of  her  ablest  and 
most  scientific  manufacturers,  with  many  skil- 
ful and  faithful  overseers  and  laborers. 

In  1820,  Mr.  Paul  Moody  had  charge  of 


WAI.THA.M,     TAKI-.M-     OF     LOWELL,          23 

the   "NYalthnm   Mills,  and  a  friend   of  liis,  Mr. 
K/ra  Worthen.  a  former  partner   in    busi. 

eonneded  with  the  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment at  Amesbury.  From  his  childhood 
Mr.  Worthen  liad  been  acquainted  with  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Pawtucke!  Falls;  and 
whc.n  the  profitableness  of  the  manufacturing 
business  led  to  inquiries  for  water  power,  the 
immense  advantages  which  this  place  held  out 
soon  struck  his  eye.  While  on  a  visit  to 
Waltham,  he  expressed  a  wish  to  Mr.  Patrick 
T.  Jackson,  one  of  the  principal  Directors  of 
the  company  there,  that  they  would  set  -up 
works  in  some  new  place,  and  give  him  em- 
ployment in  conducting  them.  Mr.  Jackson 
replied,  that  they  would  willingly  do  this,  if 
he  would  find  a  good  water  power.  Imme- 
diately JVIr.  Worthen  named  the  Pawtucket 
Falls ;  and  with  a  piece  of  chalk  drew  a  map 
of  the  river  and  canal  on  the  floor.  The  rude 
sketch  was  sufficient  to  give  Mr.  Jackson 


24         PURCHASE    OF   THE    CANAL,    ETC. 

a  favorable  impression,  who  requested  Mr. 
Moody  to  visit,  with  Mr.  Worthen,  the  place 
which  the  latter  gentleman  had  described. 
It  was  not  long  before  they  explored  this 
whole  neighborhood,  tracing  the  course  of  the 
canal,  surveying  the  adjoining  land  and  shores, 
and  satisfying  themselves  that  the  place  af- 
forded great  facilities  for  building  up  a  large 
manufacturing  town.  Soon  after  the  recep- 
tion of  their  highly  favorable  report,  the  Di- 
rectors of  the  Waltham  Company  resolved  to 
procure  this  eligible  site. 


PURCHASE  OF  THE  CANAL  AND  FARMS. 

Thomas  M.  Clark,  a  merchant  of  Newbury- 
port,  and  one  of  the  Directors  of  the  canal 
round  Pawtucket  Falls,  was  taken  into  the 
confidence  of  the  gentlemen  connected  with 
the  Waltham  Company,  and  was  by  them  em- 


PURCHASE    OF   TIIE    CANAL,    ETC.         25 


ployed  to  purchase  the  shares  of  the  Locks 
and  Canals  Corporation.  These  shares,  five 
hundred  in  number,  were  bought  at  prices 
varying  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  dollars 
per  share.  In  the  autumn  of  1821,  Mr. 
Clark  came  to  East  Chelmsford  to  purchase 
the  farms  on  which  the  city  of  Lowell  is.  now 
built.  The  first  purchase  that  was  made  was 
the  farm  of  Nathan  Tyler  —  a  tract  of  land 
lying  between  Merrimack  Street  on  the  north, 
the  Pawtucket  Canal  on  the  south,  the  Merri- 
mack Canal  on  the  west,  and  coming  down  to 
the  junction  of  the  rivers,  where  the  Massa- 
chusetts Mills  now  stand.  Here  was  a  terri- 
tory of  forty  acres,  for  which,  including  sixty 
acres  of  outlands  in  Tewksbury,  the  .sum  of 
eight  thousand  dollars  was  given.  The  farm 
of  Josiah  Fletcher,  lying  between  Merrimack 
Street  and  Merrimack  River,  and  next  above 
the  farm  of  Nathan  Tyler,  was  then  purchas- 
ed, containing  sixty  acres,  for  which  about  the 


26         PURCHASE    OF    THE    CANAL,    ETC. 

same  sum  was  paid.  Next  above  this,  and 
bordering  on  Merrimack  River,  was  the  Chee- 
ver  farm,  the  old  homestead  of  which  is  still 
standing  a  short  distance  above  the  Lawrence 
Corporation.  This  farm  contained  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  acres,  nine  undivided  tenths  of 
which  were  bought  for  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  dollars.  The  owner  of  the  other 
one  tenth  had  agreed  to  convey  it  for  two 
hundred  dollars ;  but  dying  suddenly  insolvent, 
it  was  sold  by  order  of  the  court,  the  Locks 
and  Canals  Company  giving,  for  seven  and  a 
half  tenths  thereof,  upwards  of  three  thousand 
dollars.  The  remaining  two  and  a  half  tenths 
were  bought  a  year  afterwards  for  nearly  five 
thousand  dollars  —  so  rapidly  did  the  value  of 
land  rise.  In  1822  the  farm  of  the  widow  of 
Joseph  Warren  was  purchased,  a  tract  of  land 
of  about  thirty  acres,  lying  beween  Central 
Street  and  Concord  River,  with  the  Pawtucket 
Canal  on  the  north,  and  extending  up  nearly 


PURCHASE    OF    Till:    (ANAL,    ETC.         27 

as  tar  as  Richmond's  Mills  on  the  south.  For 
this  the  sum  of  five  th<>u>and  dollars  was  paid. 
Within  these  boundaries  Mr.  Thomas  Kurd 
owned  two  or  three  acres  of  land  in  the  near 
neighborhood  of  his  Woollen  Mill,  which  was 
situated  where  the  Mechanics'  Mills  now  stand. 
The  farm  of  Mr.  Joseph  Fletcher,  the  home- 
stead of  which  still  stands  on  the  high  land  in 
the  rear  of  the  upper  part  of  Appleton  Street, 
came  down  to  the  Pawtuofcet  Canal  on  the 
north,  and  Central  Street  on  the  east,  and 
contained  about  one  hundred  acres.  This 
was  not  purchased  until  1824,  for  which  the 
sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  was  paid. 

Here  then  was  nearly  four  hundred  acres 
bought  at  prices  averaging  not  far  from  one 
hundred  dollars  per  acre.  Thus  was  posses- 
sion obtained  both  of  the  Pawtucket  Canal,  and 
of  the  territory  on  which  the  densely  settled 
part  of  Lowell  now  stands,  and  the  cost  of  the 
whole  was  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 


28        COMMENCEMENT    OF    OPERATIONS. 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  OPERATIONS. 

On  the  sixth  day  of  February,  1822,  the 
purchasers  of  the  above  named  property  were 
incorporated  as  the  6  Merrhnack  Manufactur- 
ing Company.'  Vigorous  measures  were 
adopted  in  the  following  spring  to  enlarge 
the  Pawtucket  Canal,  a  step  of  primary 
importance,  in  ofder  to  admit  a  larger  body 
of  water.  Five  hundred  men  were  constantly 
employed.  The  canal  was  made  sixty  feet 
wide,  and  capable  of  bearing  a  current  of 
water  eight  feet  deep.  This  was  not  com- 
pleted until  the  latter  part  of  the  summer  of 
1823,  and  the  expenditure  was  nearly  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

Meanwhile  a  lateral  canal — the  Merrimack 
—  was  dug  from  the  Pawtucket  Canal  to  the 
Merrimack  River.  It  was  on  the  banks  of 
this  river  that  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing 


COMMENCEMENT    OF    OPERATIONS.         I'D 

Company  commenced  the  erection  of  mills. 
Mr.  Ezra  Worthen  was  appointed  Superin- 
tendent of  this  company's  works.  He  came 
here  in  the  spring  of  1822.  The  foundation 
of  the  first  mill  was  laid  in  that  year,  and  the 
first  return  of  cloth  was  in  November,  1823. 
It  was  from  Mr.  Worthen,  as  before  remark- 
ed, that  the  first  suggestion  came  to  establish 
manufactures  in  this  place.  He  was  invited 
to  carry  his  suggestion  into  execution.  He 
barely  lived  long  enough  to  see  a  great  prom- 
ise in  his  fruitful  idea.  He  died  June  18, 
1824.  A  man  of  much  manufacturing  exper- 
ience, and  of  great  mechanical  talent,  his  loss 
in  the  infancy  of  the  enterprize  was  deeply 
felt. 


30  RE  ORGANIZATION. 


KEOEGANIZATION. 

It  soon  became  apparent  that  here  were 
mill  privileges  enough  for  several  independent 
manufacturing  companies.  It  was  then  deem- 
ed expedient  that  one  company  should  have 
charge  of  the  disposal  and  sale  of  the  land 
and  water-power,  and  of  the  furnishing  of 
machinery,  without  entering  itself  into  the 
manufacture  of  cotton.  The  old  charter  of 
1792  was  sufficient  for  this  arrangement,  with 
an  amendment  enacted  by  the  legislature  in 
January  1825.  By  this  amendment  the 
Proprietors  of  the  Locks  and  Canals  Com- 
pany were  authorized  to  purchase  and  hold 
all,  or  any  part,  of  the  real  estate  held  by 
the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company  ;  to 
purchase  and  hold  any  other  real  estate  in  the 
towns  of  Chelmsford,  Dracut,  and  Tewksbury, 
not  exceeding  in  value  one  hundred  thousand 


REORGANIZATION.  31 

dollars,  exclusive  of  improvements ;  and  were 
also  authorized  to  sell  or  lease  land  and  water 
power. 

Under  this  act  the  Locks  and  Canals  Com- 
pany proceeded  to  effect  a  reorganization,  in- 
creasing the  number  of  their  shares  to  twelve 
hundred,  at  five  hundred  dollars  per  share, 
and  taking  into  their  hands  the  whole  proper- 
ty of  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company. 
It  then   sold   to  this  company  the  land  and 
water-power  which  it  now  possesses.      This 
latter  company,  therefore,  though  at  one  time 
the  owners  of  the  whole  water  power,  hold 
the  property  they  now  possess  under  the  same 
title  with  the  other  corporations  in  this  city. 
By  this  arrangement  the  operations  of  this 
place  were  conducted  on  a  better  system,  and 
i  scope  was  given  for  the  action  of  as  many 
I  distinct  companies  as  the  Locks  and  Canals 
I  could  supply  with  water-power  and  land.     To 
I  the  furnishing  of  this  power,  and  "of  mills  and 


32         NEW   MANUFACTURING    VILLAGE. 

machinery  to  make  it  available,  has  the  sphere 
of  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company  been  ever 
since  confined. 


THE  NEW  MANUFACTURING  VILLAGE. 

Thus  a  beginning  was  made  in  the  growth 
of  this  place,  and  the  plan  finally  settled  by 
which  its  operations  were  to  be  conducted.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  look  back  and  name 
some  of  the  steps  of  its  progress.  The  call 
for  labor  in  digging  the  canals,  and  in  erecting 
mills,  brought  a  sudden  increase  of  popula- 
tion, and  soon  houses  began  to  be  erected  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  hundreds  that  flock- 
ed here.  The  first  stage  coach  that  came 
regularly  to  this  place  was  set  up  in  1822  — 
a  branch  from  the  mail  line  which  passed 
through  old  Chelmsford.  In  1823  the  large 
machine  shop  was  commenced.  It  was  com- 


NEW   MANUFACTURING   VILLAGE.  >  J 

pleted  in  1825,  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars.  Mr.  Paul  Moody, 
before  named,  was  invited  to  take  charge  of 
it,  and  for  this  purpose  removed  his  family  to 
this  place.  The  first  public  worship,  since 
the  days  of  Eliot,  that  was  held  in  what  is 
now  Lowell,  was  in  1824,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Edson 
preaching  his  first  sermon  the  first  Sunday  in 
March  of  that  year.  The  Hamilton  Compa- 
ny was  incorporated  January  2G,  1825,  and 
soon  commenced  laying  the  foundations  of 
their  mills.  The  Stone  House,  near  Pawtuck- 
et  Falls,  was  erected  the  same  year,  and  when 
opened  afforded  agreeable  accommodations  to 
the  numerous  visitors  whom  the  beautiful 
scenery  around  it,  and  the  growing  interest 
in  this  place,  brought  hither.  The  Middlesex 
Mechanics'  Association,  formed  for  the  assist- 
ance and  improvement  of  the  intelligent 
Mechanics  who  were  here  increasing  in  num- 
bers, was  incorporated  January  18,  1825. 


34         NEW   MANUFACTURING   VILLAGE. 


On  the  1 6th  of  March,  in  that  year,  the  large 
stone  church  which  the  Merrimack  Company 
had  built,  was  solemnly  consecrated  to  God 
by  Bishop  Griswold,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
Rev.  Theodore  Edson  was  invested  with  the 
order  of  priest.  This  was  the  first  church 
which  was  here  erected,  and  the  same  in 
which  the  latter  gentleman  still  continues  to 
officiate.  The  rapid  growth  of  this  place  up 
to  this  time  wrill  be  seen  by  the  following 
statement  of  the  population.  East  Chelms- 
ford,  in  1820,  had  two  hundred  inhabitants. 
At  the  beginning  of  1826  it  contained  twenty- 
five  hundred.  On  the  first  of  March  of  the 
last  named  year  this  place  was  incorporated 
into  a  town  by  the  name  of  Lowell,  in  honor 
of  Francis  Cabot  Lowell,  a  sketch  of  whose 
services,  in  connexion  with  the  rise  of  Cotton 
Manufactures  in  this  country,  will  be  found  in 
the  Appendix. 


TOWN    OF    LOW!   l.L. 


THE  TOWN  OF  LOWELL. 

The  ten  years  that  succeeded  the  incorpor- 
ation of  Lowell  as  a  town,  were  marked  by  as 
great  revolutions  in  the  business  concerns  of 
the  country,  as  could  be  found  in  any  ten 
years  that  might  be  named.  Then-  was  the 
great  depression  of  1827  and  1828,  when  so 
many  manufacturing  companies  in  New  Eng- 
land became  bankrupt,  and  universal  gloom 
prevailed.  This  was  followed  by  the  great 
rage  for  speculation  which  reigned  in  1831 
and  the  few  following  years.  The  fortunes 
of  the  young  town  were  affected  like  those  of 
all  other  places.  A  cloud  rested  upon  her 
prospects  in  the  former  period,  and  when  the 
bubble  of  the  latter  period  burst,  many  were 
ruined  who  had  here  purchased  lands  at  enor- 
mously extravagant  prices.  Yet  through  all 
this  the  growth  of  Lowell  was  in  the  main 


— o 


36  TOWN    OF    LOWELL. 

steadily  onward.  She  was  extending  the 
plan,  and  laying  broad  and  deep  the  founda- 
tions of  a  great  community.  New  streets 
were  opened,  houses  and  stores  were  put  up, 
churches  were  erected,  canals  were  dug, 
manufacturing  operations  were  extended,  and 
within  the  ten  years  named  above,  the  popula- 
tion of  the  town  was  multiplied  six  fold.  The 
increase  was  without  a  parallel  in  any  place, 
in  any  country.  This  prosperity  was  the 
result  of  the  sagacity,  enterprize,  and  energy 
of  the  capitalists  and  manufacturers,  by  whom 
the  fortunes  of  the  place  were  guided. 

A  few  of  the  leading  events  of  these  years 
will  be  here  briefly  noticed.  The  Lowell 
Bank — the  first  in  the  town — was  incorpo- 
rated March  11,  1828,  with  a  capital  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  That  same  year 
two  new  manufacturing  companies  were  incor- 
porated—  the  Appleton  and  Lowell  —  both 
of  which  immediately  proceeded  to  the  erec- 


TOWN    OF   LOWELL.  37 

tion  of  mills.  An  Institution  for  Savings  was 
incorporated,  and  went  into  operation  in  1829. 
A  vast  increase  of  the  business  of  Lowell 
was  planned  in  1830,  by  the  construction  of 
the  Western,  or  Suffolk,  Canal.  This  was 
dug  in  1831  and  1832,  at  an  expense  of 
seventy  thousand  dollars.  Instead  of  using 
the  whole  fall  of  thirty-two  feet  at  once,  it  was 
proposed  to  divide  it  into  two  falls  of  sixteen 
feet  each;  and  thus  power  was  obtained  for 
three  new  corporations.  The  Suffolk,  Tre- 
mont,  and  Lawrence  Companies  were  all  in- 
corporated in  the  winter  and  spring  of  1831, 
and  forthwith  commenced  the  erection  of  mills 
and  boarding  houses.  That  same  year  the 
Railroad  Bank  was  incorporated  and  went 
into  operation  with  a  capital  of  eight  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars.  Simultaneously  with 
these  movements  a  new  company,  incorpo- 
rated June  5,  1830,  by  the  name  of  the  Mid- 
dlesex Manufacturing  Company,  purchased 


TOWN    OF    LOWELL. 


the  water  privilege  before  owned  by  Thomas 
Hurd,  and  proceeded  to  put  up  a  large  brick 
mill  for  the  manufacture  of  wool.  A  bleach- 
ing company,  with  a  capital  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars,  was  incorporated  in  1832.  Still  an- 
other canal  was  dug  in  1835,  at  an  expense 
of  thirty-five  thousand  dollars,  to  carry  water 
to  the  mills  of  the  Boott  Company,  incorpo- 
rated March  27th  of  that  year,  and  which 
proceeded  to  put  up  five  large  factories,  and 
eight  blocks  of  boarding  houses. 

Nor  was  it  merely  in  this  extension  of  her 
manufacturing  operations  that  Lowell  began 
at  once  to  assume  the  importance  of  a  great 
town.  Other  buildings  were  erected,  such  as 
usually  belong  to  such  a  town.  A  spacious  hall 
for  town  purposes,  with  committee  rooms  and 
stores  underneath,  was  completed  in  1830,  at  an 
expense  of  thirty  thousand  dollars.  Churches 
for  the  Baptist,  Orthodox,  Universalist,  and 
Unitarian  denominations  were  erected;  the 


TOWN    OF    LOWELL.  39 

latter,  a  substantial  l»rii-k  building,  with  a 
rliask'  and  beautiful  interior,  dedicated  Dec. 
25,  1832,  and  costing  twenty-eight  thousand 
dollars.  A  large  hotel  —  the  Merrimack 
House  —  was  built  the  same  year.  This 
House  belongs  to  the  first  class  of  similar 
establishments,  and  cost  thirty  thousand  dol- 
lars. Another  public  hall,  with  reading  and 
library  rooms,  was  built  in  1835,  for  the  use 
of  the  Middlesex  Mechanics'  Association,  on 
land  given  by  the  Locks  and  Canals  Com- 
pany, and  at  a  cost  of  twenty  thousand 
dollars ;  nearly  the  whole  of  which  was  paid 
by  contributions  from  the  different  manufac- 
turing companies.  About  this  time  also  two 
large  Grammar  School  Houses  were  erected, 
at  an  expense  to  the  town  of  twenty-one 
thousand  dollars.  A  large  Alms-house  and 
Poor  Farm  were  provided  for  the  town,  a 
little  over  a  mile  distant  from  its  centre,  the 
cost  of  which  was  eighteen  thousand  five  hun- 


40  TOWN    OF   LOWELL. 


dred  dollars.  By  the  annexation  to  Lowell, 
in  1834,  of  that  part  of  the  town  of  Tewks- 
bury  called  Belvidere,  the  territory  of  the 
town  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  land, 
which,  from  its  elevated  and  pleasant  situa- 
tion, was  peculiarly  valuable  for  building  lots, 
for  which  purpose  it  has  since  been  extensively 
used.  The  opening  of  the  Railroad,  July  4, 
1835,  which  connects  Boston  with  Lowell, 
brought  the  thriving  town  within  an  hour's 
ride  of  the  metropolis. 

These  are  some  of  the  progressive  steps  of 
the  rapid  and  unexampled  advancement  of 
this  place.  A  simple  statement  of  the  popu- 
lation of  the  town,  at  different  periods  within 
the  ten  years  here  alluded  to,  will  still  further 
illustrate  its  growth.  Population  of  Lowell 
in  1826,  two  thousand  five  hundred  inhab- 
itants. In  1828,  three  thousand  five  hundred 
thirty-two.  In  1830,  six  thousand  four  hun- 
dred seventy-seven.  In  1832,  ten  thousand 


LOCKS  AND  CANALS  COMPANY.    45 


disposition  referred  to  is  attested  by  the  kind 
of  improvements  above  indicated,  and  by  the 
fact  that  a  large  number  of  private  residences, 
and  some  of  them  commodious  and  costly 
dwellings,  have  recently  been  erected. 


LOCKS  AND  CANALS  COMPANY. 

This  sketch  of  the  successive  steps  in  the 
history  of  this  young  city,  may  be  appropri- 
ately followed  by  a  statement  of  the  extent  of 
the  operations  of  the  chief  establishments 
here,  together  with  a  summary  of  these  op- 
erations as  they  exist  at  the  present  time. 

We  begin  with  the  Locks  and  Canals 
Company,  whose  works  are  carried  on,  as  we 
have  before  seen,  under  the  charter  of  1792. 
Their  capital  stock  is  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  They  supply  water-power  to  the 


o 

46     LOCKS  AND  CANALS  COMPANY. 

other  corporations,  manufacture  machinery, 
railroad-cars  and  engines,  and  contract  for 
the  erection  of  mills.  They  have  two  shops 
—  one  of  which  is  the  largest  in  the  United 
States  —  a  smithy  and  a  foundry.  They 
keep,  usually,  five  hundred  male  laborers 
employed;  but,  when  building  mills,  they 
give  work,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  seven 
hundred  more.  They  manufacture  one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  twenty-five  tons  of 
wrought  and  cast  iron  per  year,  and  consume 
annually  fifteen  thousand  bushels  of  charcoal, 
two  hundred  chaldrons  of  smiths'  coal,  four 
hundred  tons  of  hard  coal,  two  hundred  cords 
of  wood,  and  two  thousand  three  hundred  gal- 
lons of  oil.  They  can  furnish  machinery 
complete  for  a  mill  of  five  thousand  spindles 
in  four  months  ;  and  lumber  and  materials  are 
always  at  command,  with  which  to  build  or 
rebuild  a  mill  within  that  time,  if  required. 
Beside  selling  a  large  amount  of  land,  on 


LOCKS  AND  CANALS  COMl'ANK     1, 


which  the  city  now  stands,  at  prices  varying 
from  one  eighth  to  six  eighths  of  a  dollar  per 
square  foot,  it  has  had  the  profits  of  all  the 
mills  and  boarding-houses  it  has  built  on  good 
contracts  for  other  corporations,  the  profits 
ise  of  the  manufactures  of  its  shops ;  and, 
in  addition  to  this,  it  reserves  and  receives  an 
annual  rent  for  the  water  power  disposed  of 
for  each  mill.  Within  the  last  few  months, 
this  company  has  disposed  of  a  large  portion 
of  its  lands  and  buildings  in  Lowell,  making 
sales  to  'the  amount  of  four  hundred  and 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  The  stock  of 
this  company  has  been  sold  at  more  than 
three  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  advance 
above  par.  In  the  recent  sale  of  their  prop- 
erty, the  shops  and  smithy,  and  the  boarding- 
houses  connected  with  them,  were  purchased 
by  individuals  who  were  incorporated  this  year 
into  a  company  by  the  name  of  the  £  Machine 
Shop/  The  manufacture  of  machinery,  rail- 


48  MERRIMACK    COMPANY. 

road-cars,  and  engines,  is  for  the  present  here 
carried  on  in  the  same  manner  and  to  the  same 
extent  as  heretofore. 


MEREIMACK  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

The  act  incorporating  this  company  was 
passed  in  1822.  Its  capital  stock  is  two  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  It  has  five  cotton  mills,  exten- 
sive print  works,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-five 
boarding-houses.  It  runs  forty-one  thousand 
six  hundred  spindles,  and  one  thousand  three 
hundred  looms.  It  gives  employment  to  one 
thousand  two  hundred-  and  fifty  females,  and 
to  five  hundred  and  fifty  males.  It  manufac- 
tures two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  yards 
of  cloth  per  week,  working  up  in  that  time 
fifty-six  thousand  pounds  of  cotton.  It  con- 
sumes, annually,  five  thousand  tons  of  anthra- 
cite coal,  two  hundred  cords  of  wood,  and 
thirteen  thousand  gallons  of  oil.  The  stock 


7? 

HAMILTON    COMPANY.  49 


of  this  company  is  at  great  advance  above 
par,  and  dividends  have  recently  been  made 
of  ten  per  cent,  for  six  months. 


HAMILTON  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1825.  Capital  stock  one 
million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has 
three  mills,  extensive  print  works,  and  fifty 
boarding  houses.  It  runs  twenty-two  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  forty-four  spindles,  and 
six  hundred  and  eight  power  looms.  It  em- 
ploys six  hundred  and  fifty  females,  and  two 
hundred  and  fifty  males.  It  makes  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  thousand  yards  of  cloth  per 
week,  manufacturing  in  that  time  forty-two 
thousand  pounds  of  cotton.  It  consumes, 
annually,  three  thousand  tons  of  anthracite 
coal,  five  hundred  cords  of  wood,  and  six 
thousand  five  hundred  gallons  of  oil. 

5 


50  APPLETON    COMPANY. 


APPLET  ON  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

'  This  Company  was  incorporated  in  1828, 
and  in  the  same  year  commenced  the  erection 
of  their  mills.  Their  capital  stock  is  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  In  their  two  mills 
they  run  eleven  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
seventy-six  spindles,  and  four  hundred  looms. 
They  have  thirty  boarding  houses,  and  employ 
three  hundred  and  forty  females,  and  sixty- 
five  males.  They  make  one  hundred  thou- 
sand yards  of  cloth  per  week.  They  work 
up  thirty-six  thousand  pounds  of  cotton  per 
week.  Of  coal  they  use  three  hundred  tons 
per  year,  and  of  oil  three  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  forty  gallons. 


l.oWKLL    COMPANY.  51 


LOWELL  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

The  Lowell  Company  was  incorporated  in 
1828.  Their  capital  stock  is  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  They  have  two  mills,  one 
for  the  manufacture  of  cotton,  and  one  for  the 
manufacture  of  carpets,  and  twenty-seven 
boarding  houses.  They  run  six  thousand 
spindles  for  cotton,  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty- two  looms.  Beside  these  they  have 
fifty  power  looms  for  carpet  weaving,  and 
forty  hand  looms,  for  the  same  purpose. 
They  manufacture  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred yards  of  cotton  cloth  per  week,  and 
over  seven  thousand  yards  of  carpeting. 
They  consume  yearly  five  hundred  tons  of 
coal,  five  hundred  cords  of  wood,  four  thou- 
sand gallons  of  olive  oil,  and  four  thousand 
gallons  of  sperm  oil.  The  power  looms  for 
carpet  weaving  are  the  first  and  only  ones 


52  MIDDLESEX    COMPANY. 

that  have  ever  been  successfully  employed. 
They  are  the  invention  of  a  young  but  highly 
distinguished  machinist,  formerly  of  Lowell, 
and  have  been  the  objects  of  much  admiration. 


MIDDLESEX  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1830.  Capital  stock  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  This 
Company  has  two  mills,  one  of  which  is 
very  large,  and  two  dye-houses.  It  manu- 
factures broadcloths  and  cassimeres.  It  runs 
seven  thousand  two  hundred  spindles,  forty- 
five  looms  for  broadcloth,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-two  for  cassimeres.  It  employs  five 
hundred  and  fifty  females,  and  two  hundred 
and  fifty  males.  It  makes  twelve  thousand 
yards  of  cassimere  per  week,  and  two  thou- 
sand two  hundred  yards  of  broadcloth.  It 
works  up  one  million  pounds  of  wool  per 


SUFFOLK    COMPANY.  53 

year,  and  three  million  teasles.  It  consumes 
annually  six  hundred  tons  of  coal,  one  thou- 
sand five  hundred  cords  of  wood,  fifteen 
thousand  gallons  of  oil  for  oiling  wool,  and  six 
thousand  gallons  of  sperm  oil.  • 


SUFFOLK  MANUFACTURING   COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1830.  Capital  stock  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has  two  mills 
running  eleven  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-two  spindles,  and  four  hundred  and 
four  looms.  It  has  thirty  boarding  houses, 
and  employs  three  hundred  and  forty  females, 
and  seventy  males.  It  makes  one  hundred 
thousand  yards  of  cloth  per  week,  chiefly 
drillings,  using  for  this  thirty-six  thousand 
pounds  of  cotton.  It  consumes  annually  three 
hundred  tons  of  coal,  fifty  cords  of  wood,  and 
three  thousand  five  hundred  gallons  of  oil. 


Q 

54         LAWRENCE  COMPANY. 


TREMONT  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1830.  Capital  stock  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Its  two  mills  run 
eleven  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty 
spindles,  and  four  hundred  and  nine  looms. 
It  has  thirty  boarding  houses,  and  employs 
three  hundred  and  sixty  females,  and  seventy 
males.  It  makes  one  hundred  and  fifteen 
thousand  yards  of  cloth  per  week,  working 
up  in  that  time  thirty  thousand  pounds  of  cot- 
ton. It  consumes  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of 
coal,  sixty  cords  of  wood,  three  thousand  six 
hundred  and  ninety-two  gallons  of  oil,  yearly. 


LAWRENCE  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1830.     Capital  stock  one 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.     It  has 


BOOTT    COMPANY.  55 


sixty-four  boarding  houses,  and  five  mills. 
It  runs  thirty-two  thousand  six  hundred  and 
forty  spindles,  and  nine  hundred  and  fifty 
looms.  It  employs  nine  hundred  females, 
and  one  hundred  and  seventy  males.  It 
makes  two  hundred  and  ten  thousand  yards 
of  cloth  per  week,  working  up  in  that  time 
sixty-five  thousand  pounds  of  cotton.  It  con- 
sumes, annually,  six  hundred  and  fifty  tons  of 
coal,  one  hundred  and  twenty  cords  of  wood, 
and  eight  thousand  two  hundred  and  seven- 
teen gallons  of  oil. 


BOOTT  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY. 

Incorporated  in  1835.  Capital  stock  one 
million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has 
sixty-four  boarding  houses,  and  four  mills, 
running  thirty-two  thousand  and  thirty-six 
spindles,  and  nine  hundred  and  ten  looms.  It 


56  MASSACHUSETTS    COMPANY. 


employs  seven  hundred  and  eighty  females,  and 

\ 
one  hundred  and  thirty  males.     It  makes  one 

hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  yards  of 
cloth  per  week,  working  up  sixty-three  thou- 
sand pounds  of  cotton  in  that  time.  Its 
annual  consumption  is,  of  coal,  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  tons ;  of  wood,  seventy  cords ; 
of  oil,  seven  thousand  one  hundred  gallons. 


MASSACHUSETTS  MANUFACTURING  CO. 

Incorporated  in  1839.  Capital  stock  one- 
million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  has 
sixty-four  boarding  houses,  and  four  mills.  It 
runs  twenty-eight  thousand  two  hundred  and 
eighty-eight  spindles,  and  nine  hundred  and 
four  looms.  It  employs  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  females,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty 
males.  It  makes  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
two  thousand  yards  of  cloth  per  week,  work- 


SMALLER   ESTABLISHMENTS.  57 


ing  up  in  that  time  ninety-six  thousand  pounds 
of  cotton.  It  consumes,  annually,  seven  hun- 
dred and  fifty  tons  of  coal,  seventy  cords  of 
wood,  and  seven  thousand  one  hundred  gal- 
lons of  oil. 


SMALLER  MANUFACTURING  AND  MECHANICAL 
ESTABLISHMENTS. 

A  great  amount  and  variety  of  other  busi- 
ness is  done  in  Lowell,  beside  that  of  the 
incorporated  companies  above  named.  Me- 
chanical skill  and  ingenuity  here  naturally 
concentrate,  and  the  best  of  artizans  and 
of  workmanship  in  almost  all  branches  of 
mechanical  industry  may  be  here  found. 
The  extensive  powder  works  of  Oliver  M. 
Whipple,  Esq.,  before  referred  to,  are  still 
in  successful  operation,  making  eight  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five  thousand  pounds  of 


58  LOWELL    IN   1845. 

powder  per  year.  The  Lowell  Bleachery, 
with  a  capital  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  car- 
ries on  a  large  business  for  an  establishment 
of  that  kind.  Beside  these,  Lowell  has  a 
Flannel  Mill;  Blanket  Mill;  Paper  Mill; 
Planing  Machines ;  a  Card  and  Whip  Fac- 
tory ;  Reed  Machines  ;  (the  three  last  among 
the  most  curious  specimens  of  human  con- 
trivance;) Foundry;  Grist  and  Saw  Mills; 
Sash  and  Door  Manufactory;  Lock  Manu- 
factories ;  Carriage  Manufactory ;  Loom  Har- 
ness Shops  ;  —  together  employing  about  five 
hundred  hands,  and  a  capital  of  six  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 


LOWELL  IN  1845. 

We  may  here  sum  up  and  put  together 
some  of  the  facts  which  have  been  referred 
to  in  the  preceding  statements.  Lowell  has 


LOWBLL   IN   1845.  59 

.•in  a  population  of  nearly  thirty  thou- 
sand souls.  About  one  third  of  this  whole, 
number  are  operatives,  either  in  the  mills, 
or  connected  with  the  mechanical  employ- 
i  Dients  before  described,  viz.  six  thousand 
three  hundred  and  twenty  females,  and  two 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifteen  males. 
There  are  thirty-three  mills  beside  the  print 
works,  and  about  five  hundred  and  fifty  houses 
belonging  to  the  corporations.  The  capital 
stock  here  invested  in  manufacturing  and  me- 
chanical enterprises  is  twelve  millions  of  dol- 
lars. There  are  made  in  Lowell,  every  week, 
one  million  four  hundred  and  fifty -nine  thou- 
sand one  hundred  yards  of  cloth,  amounting 
to  seventy-five  million  eight  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  thousand  yards  per  year.  This 
is  nearly  enough  to  belt  the  globe  twice 
round.  Sixty-one  thousand  one  hundred 
bales  of  cotton  are  worked  up  every  year. 
Of  printed  calico  there  are  here  made  annu- 


60  LOWELL   IN   1845. 


ally  fourteen  millions  of  yards.  The  annual 
consumption  in  the  Lowell  manufactories  is, 
of  coal,  twelve  thousand  five  hundred  tons ; 
of  wood,  three  thousand  two  hundred  and 
seventy  cords ;  of  oil,  sixty-seven  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  forty-two  gallons ;  of  char- 
coal, six  hundred  thousand  bushels  ;  of  starch, 
eight  hundred  thousand  pounds.  Over  one 
million  and  a  half  of  dollars  are  paid  out 
every  year  for  labor,  and  that  sum  has  been 
received  as  the  profits  for  one  year  of  this 
immense  business.  At  no  time  have  the 
business  prospects  of  the  city  been  more 
encouraging  than  they  are  now.  A  large 
mill  has  this  season  been  completed  by  the 
Lawrence  Corporation,  equal  in  size  to  two 
of  their  old  ones.  The  Suffolk  and  Tremont 
Companies  have  filled  up  the  spaces  between 
their  mills,  making  one  vast  mill  of  the  two 
which  belong  to  each.  The  Hamilton  and 
Appleton  Companies  are  engaged  in  a  simi- 


A    LOWELL    CoiiroKATION..  (',1 

lar  extension  of  thoir  works.  A  inaimnoth 
mill  is  to  be  erected  forthwith  by  the  Mer- 
rimack  Cumpany,  in.the  rear  of  their  present 
factories.  New  mills  are  to  be  built  likewise 
by  the.  Middlesex,  Hamilton  and  Prescott 
Companies.  By  arrangements  which  will 
probably  be  soon  completed,  the  business  of 
this  city  will  be  extended  to  the  amount  of 
twenty  per  cent. 


A  LOWELL  CORPORATION. 

From  this  sketch  of  the  growth  and  extent 
of  the  operations  of  this  city,  we  come  now 
to  some  branches  of  our  subject,  which  are  of 
the  highest  interest  and  importance ;  we  mean 
the  method  upon  which  business  is  here  con- 
ducted, the  provisions  made  for  the  health, 
comfort,  and  moral  protection  of  the  opera- 
tives, and  the  actual  character  which  the  mass 


62  A    LOWELL    CORPORATION. 

of  these  operatives  sustain.  On  this  last 
point,  all  know  that  conflicting  statements 
have  been  put  forth.  Lowell  has  been  highly 
commended  by  some,  as  a  model  community, 
for  its  good  order,  industry,  spirit  of  intelli- 
gence, and  general  freedom  from  vice.  It  has 
been  strongly  condemned,  by  others,  as  a  hot- 
bed of  corruption,  tainting  and  polluting  the 
whole  land.  We  all,  in  New  England,  have 
an  interest  in  knowing  what  are  the  exact  facts 
of  the  case.  We  are  destined  to  be  a  great 
manufacturing  people.  The  influences  that 
go  forth  from  Lowell,  will  go  forth  from  many 
other  manufacturing  villages  and  cities.  If 
these  influences  are  pernicious,  we  have  a 
great  calamity  impending  over  us.  Bather 
than  endure  it,  we  should  prefer  to  have 
every  factory  destroyed ;  the  character  of  our 
sons  and  daughters  being  of  infinitely  more 
importance  than  any  considerations  "where- 
withal they  shall  be  clothed."  If,  on  the 


A    LOWELL    CORPORATION.  63 


other  hand,  a  system  lias  been  introduced, 
can  -fully  provided  with  checks  and  safeguards, 
and  strong  moral  and  conservative  influences, 
it  is  our  duty  to  see  that  this  system  be  faith- 
fully carried  out,  so  as  to  prevent  the  disas- 
trous results  which  have  developed  themselves 
in  the  manufacturing  towns  of  other  countries. 
Hence  the  topics  above  named  assume  the 
importance  of  the  highest  moral  questions. 
They  will  justify  and  demand  the  most  careful 
consideration.  The  author  writes  after  a  nine 
years'  residence  in  this  city,  during  which  he 
has  closely  observed  the  working  of  the  fac- 
tory system,  and  has  gathered  a  great  amount 
of  statistical  facts  which  have  a  bearing  upon 
this  subject.  He  believes  himself  to  be  un- 
affected by  any  partisan  views,  as  he  stands 
wholly  aside  from  the  sphere  of  any  interested 
motives.  He  enters  upon  this  part  of  his 
work,  feeling,  in  the  outset,  that  he  has  no  case, 
one  way  or  the  other,  to  make  out,  and  intend- 


64  A   LOWELL    CORPORATION. 

ing  principally  to  confine  himself  to  the  pre- 
sentation of  the  facts  which  he  has  collected. 

As  preparing  the  way  to  a  more  intelligent 
view  of  the  case,  a  brief  description  may  be 
here  given  of  a  Lowell  Corporation. 

On  the  banks  of  the  river,  or  of  a  canal, 
stands  a  row  of  mills,  numbering,  on  different 
corporations,  from  two  to  five.  A  few  rods 
from  these,  are  long  blocks  of  brick  boarding- 
houses,  containing  a  sufficient  number  of 
tenements  to  accommodate  the  most  of  the 
operatives  employed  by  the  Corporation. 
Between  the  boarding-houses  and  the  mills  is 
a  line  of  .a  one  story  brick  building,  contain- 
ing the  counting  room,  superintendent's  room, 
clerk's  and  store  rooms.  The  mill  yard  is  so 
surrounded  by  enclosures,  that  the  only  access 
is  through  the  counting  room,  in  full  view  of 
those  whose  business  it  is  to  see  that  no  im- 
proper persons  intrude  themselves  upon  the 
premises; 


A   LOWELL    CORPORATION.  65 


Thus  the  superintendent,  from  his  room, 
has  the  whole  of  the  Corporation  under  his 
eye.  On  the  one  side  are  the  boarding-houses, 
all  of  which  are  under  his  care,  and  are  rented 
only  to  known  and  approved  tenants ;  on  the 
other  side  are  the  mills,  in  each  room  of  which 
lie  lias  stationed  some  carefully  selected  over- 
seer, who  is  held  responsible  for  the  work, 
good  order,  and  proper  management  of  his 
room.  Within  the  yard,  also,  are  repair  shops, 
each  department  of  which,  whether  of  iron, 
leather,  or  wood,  has  its  head  overseer. 
There  is  a  superintendent  of  the  yard,  who, 
with  a  number  of  men  under  his  care,  has 
charge  of  all  the  out-door  work  of  the  estab- 
lishment. There  is  a  head  watchman,  having 
oversight  of  the  night  watch,  who  are  required 
to  pass  through  every  room  in  the  mills  a  pre- 
scribed number  of  times  every  night. 

This,  then,  is  the  little  world  over  which 
the  superintendent  presides.  Assisted  by  his 


66  A    LOWELL    CORPORATION. 


clerk,  who  keeps  the  necessary  records,  by 
the  paymaster,  who,  receiving  his  funds  from 
the  treasurer  of  the  Corporation,  disburses 
their  wages  to  the  operatives,  and  not  forget- 
ing  even  the  "runner,"  as  he  is  called,  who 
does  the  errands  of  the  office,  the  superin- 
tendent's mind  regulates  all ;  his  character  in-, 
spires  all ;  his  plans,  matured  and  decided  by 
the  directors  of  the  company,  who  visit  him 
every  week,  control  all.  He  presides  over 
one  of  the  most  perfect  systems  of  subdivided 
and  yet  well-defined  responsibility.  Of  course 
every  thing  depends  upon  the  kind  of  man 
who  fills  such  a  post  as  this.  No  pecuniary 
considerations  have  ever  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  appointment,  by  the  Corporations,  of  the 
best  men  who  could  be  found.  To  their 
remarkable  and  universally  acknowledged 
success  in  this  respect,  to  their  selection  of 
individuals  highly  distinguished  both  for  their 
general  force  -of  character,  and  for  their  in- 


A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE.  67 

,  conscientiousness,  and  magnanimity, 
is  Lowell  chiefly  indebted,  both  for  the  profit- 
ableness of  her  operations,  and  the  character 
which  she  has  sustained. 


A  LOWELL  BOARDING-HOUSE. 

Each  of  the  long  blocks  of  boarding-houses 
is  divided  into  six  or  eight  tenements,  and  are 
generally  three  stories  high.  These  tene- 
ments are  finished,  off  in  a  style  much  above 
the  common  farm-houses  of  the  country,  and 
more  nearly  resemble  the  abodes,  of  respect- 
able mechanics  in  rural  villages.  They  are 
all  furnished  with  an  abundant  supply  of 
water,  and  with  suitable  yards  and  out-build- 
ings. These  are  constantly  kept  clean,  the 
buildings  well  painted^  and  the  premises 
thoroughly  whitewashed  every  spring,  at  the 
Corporation's  expense.  The  front  room  is 


68  A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE. 

usually  the  common  eating-room  of  the  house, 
and  the  kitchen  is  in  the  rear.  The  keeper 
of  the  house,  (commonly  a  widow,  with  her 
family  of  children,)  has  her  parlor  in  some 
part  of  the  establishment ;  and  in  some  houses 
there  is  a  sitting-room  for  the  use  of  the 
boarders.  The  remainder  of  the  apartments 
are  sleeping-rooms.  In  each  of  these  are 
lodged  two,  four,  and  in  some  cases  six  board- 
ers ;  and  the  room  has  an  air  of  neatness  and 
comfort,  exceeding  what  most  of  the  occupants 
have  been  accustomed  to  in  their  paternal 
homes.  In  many  cases,  these  rooms  are  not 
sufficiently  large  for  the  number  who  occupy 
them;  and  oftentimes  that  attention  is  not 
paid  to  their  ventilation  which  a  due  regard 
to  health  demands.  These  are  points  upon 
which  a  reform  is  called  for ;  and,  in  the  con- 
struction of  new  boarding-houses,  this  reform 
should  be  attempted.  At  the  same  time,  it 
should  in  justice  be  added,  that  the  evil  alluded 


A    LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE.  G9 

to  is  not  peculiar  to  Lowell,  and  will  not  prob- 
ably appear  to  be  a  crying  one,  if  the  case 
should  be  brought  into  comparison  with  many 
of  the  apartments  of  milliners  and  sempstresses 
in  the  boarding-houses  of  our  cities. 

As  one  important  feature  in  the  manage- 
ment of  these  houses,  it  deserves  to  be  named 
that  male  operatives  and  female  operatives 
do  not  board  in  the  same  tenement;  and 
the  following  Regulations,  printed  by  one  of 
the  companies,  and  given  to  each  keeper  of 
their  houses,  are  here  subjoined,  as  a  simple 
statement  of  the  rules  generally  observed  by 
all  the  Corporations. 

"  REGULATIONS  to  be  observed  by  persons 
occupying  the  Boarding-houses  belonging,  to 
the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company. 

They  must  not  board  any  persons  not  em- 
ployed by  the  company,  unless  by  special 
permission. 


70  A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE. 

No  disorderly  or  improper  conduct  must  be 
allowed  in  the  houses. 

The  doors  must  be  closed  at  10  o'clock  in 
the  evening ;  and  no  person  admitted  after 
that  time,  unless  a  sufficient  excuse  can  be 
given. 

Those  who  keep  the  houses,  when  required, 
must  give  an  account  of  the  number,  names, 
and  employment  of  their  boarders  ;  also  with 
regard  to  their  general  conduct,  and  whether 
they  are  in  the  habit  of  attending  public 
worship. 

The  buildings,  both  inside  and  out,  and  the 
yards  about  them,  must  be  kept  clean,  and  in 
good  order.  If  the  buildings  or  fences  are 
injured,  they  will  be  repaired  and  charged  to 
the  occupant. 

No  one  will  be  allowed  to  keep  swine." 

The  hours  of  taking  meals  in  these  houses 
are  uniform  throughout  all  the  Corporations 


A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE.  71 

in  the  city,  and  are  as  follows :  Dinner  — 
always  at  halt'  past  twelve  o'clock.  Break- 
last  —  from  November  1  to  February  28, 
before  going  to  work,  and  so  early  as  to 
begin  work  as  soon  as  it  is  light ;  through 
March  at  half  past  seven  o'clock ;  from  April 
1  to  September  19,  at  seven  o'clock ;  and 
from  September  20  to  October  31,  at  half 
seven  o'clock.  Supper  —  always  after 
work  at  night,  that  is,  after  seven  o'clock, 
from  March  20  to  September  19 ;  after  half- 
past  seven  o'clock,  from  September  20  to  ! 
March  19.  The  time  allowed  for  each  meal 
is  thirty  minutes  for  breakfast,  when  that 
meal  is  taken  after  beginning  work;  for 
dinner,  thirty  minutes,  from  September  1 
to  April  30 ;  and  forty-five  minutes  from 
May  1  to  August  31. 

That  this  time  is  too  short  for  a  due  regard 
to  health,  must  be  obvious  to  all.  And  yet 
it  is  probably  as  long  as  most  business  men 


72        A  LOWELL  BOARDING-HOUSE. 


allow  to  themselves ;  it  is  probably  as  long 
as  is  spent  at  the  tables  of  more  than  half 
of  our  public  hotels.  For  the  sake  of  the 
operatives  we  wish  that  the  time  for  meals 
was  lengthened ;  but  we  do  not  see  the  pro- 
priety of  calling  in  this  quarter  for  a  reform 
in  those  habits  of  hasty  eating  which  pervade 
the  whole  country,  and  characterize  our  na- 
tion. The  food  that  is  furnished  in  these 
houses  is  of  a  substantial  and  wholesome 
kind,  is  neatly  served,  and  'in  sufficient  abun- 
dance. Operatives  are  under  no  compulsion  to 
board  in  one  tenement  rather  than  another ; 
it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  boarding-house 
keeper,  therefore,  to  have  her  bill  of  -fare 
attractive.  And  then,  as  to  the  character  of 
these  boarding-house  keepers  themselves,  on 
no  point  is  the  superintendent  more .  par- 
ticular than  on  this.  He  has  generally  a 
great  liberty  of  choice  of  tenants.  Appli- 
cations for  these  situations  are  very  numer- 


A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE.  73 

ous.  The  rents  of  the  company's  houses 
are  purposely  low,  averaging  only  from  one 
third  to  one  half  of  what  similar  houses  rent 
for  in  the  city.  In  times  of  pressure  a  part 
of  this  low  rent,  and  in  some  instances-  the 
whole  of  it,  has  been  remitted.  There  is 
no  intention  on  the  part  of  the  Corporation 
to  make  any  revenue  from  these  houses. 
They  are  a  great  source  of  annual  expense. 
But  the  advantages  of  supervision  are  more 
i  than  an  equivalent  for  this.  No  tenant  is 
i  admitted  who  has  not  hitherto  borne  a  good 
character,  and  who  does  not  continue  to  sus- 
tain it.  In  many  cases  the  tenant  has  long 
been  keeper  of  the  house,  for  six,  eight,  or 
twelve  years,  and  is  well  known  to  hundreds 
of  her  girls  as  their  adviser  and  friend  and 
second  mother.  Though  the  price  of  board 
is  low,  at  present  but  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  for  female,  and  one  dollar  and 
seventy-five  cents  for  male  boarders,  yet 

7 


74  A   LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE. 


many  of  them,  aided  by  the  cheap  rents 
just  alluded  to,  and  by  prudent  and  judicious 
management,  have  paid  off  old  debts,  have 
educated  sons  and  daughters,  and  have  made 
a  comfortable  provision  for  old  age.  Many 
cases  of  this  kind  have  come  to  the  personal 
knowledge  of  the  author.  He  knows  a  man, 
who,  broken  down  by  unfortunate  speculations 
at  the  South,  removed  his  wife  and  family  of 
daughters  to  Lowell ;  and  there,  forgetting 
their  former  affluence,  and  relying  hopefully 
upon  their  own  exertions,  honestly  paid  off, 
in  a  few  years,  by  the  fruits  of  their  labor, 
an  old  incumbrance  of  over  two  thousand 
dollars,  and  realized  enough  beside  to  give 
an  enviable  education  to  his  children.  He 
knows,  also,  of  a  poor  widow,  who,  running 
in  debt  for  every  cent  of  the  furniture  of 
her  boarding-house,  paid  for  it  all,  in  a  short 
time ;  and,  by  eleven  years  of  industry  and 
economy,  saved  the  snug  sum  of  fourteen 


A    LOWELL    BOARDING-HOUSE.  75 


hundred  dollars,  with  which  she  purchased  a 
quiet  retreat  for  her  old  age  in  the  country. 
These  are  undoubtedly  uncommon  cases,  and 
they  should  be  taken  as  such.  They  were 
the  reward  of  more  good  management  and 
thrift  than  fall  to  the  ordinary  lot. 

The  influence  which  this  system  of  board- 
ing-houses has  exerted  upon  the  good  order 
and  good  morals  of  the  place,  has  been  vast 
and  beneficent.  It  is  this  system  to  which 
we  especially  referred  in  our  previous  chap- 
ter on  Waltham.  By  it  the  care  and  influ- 
ence of  the  superintendent  are  extended 
over  his  operatives,  while  they  are  out  of 
the  mill,  as  well  as  while  they  are  in  it. 
Employing  chiefly  those  who  have  no  per- 
manent residence  in  Lowell,  but  are  only 
temporary  boarders,  upon  any  embarrass- 
ment of  affairs  they  return  to  their  country 
homes,  and  do  not  sink  down  here  a  helpless 
caste,  clamouring  for  work,  starving  unless 


76  A   LOWELL    COTTON   MILL. 


employed,  and  hence  ready  for  a  riot,  for 
the  destruction  of  property,  und  repeating 
here  the  scenes  enacted  in  the  manufacturing 
villages  of  England.  To  a  very  great  degree 
the  future  condition  of  Lowell  is  dependent 
upon  a  faithful  adhesion  to  this  system ;  and 
it  will  deserve  the  serious  consideration  of 
those  old  towns  which  are  now  introducing 
steam  mills,  whether,  if  they  do  not  provide 
boarding-houses,  and  employ  chiefly  other 
operatives  than  resident  ones,  they  be  not 
bringing  in  the  seeds  of  future  and  alarm- 
ing evil. 


A  LOWELL  COTTON  MILL. 

The  cotton  purchased  by  agents  at  the 
South,  and  shipped  to  Boston,  is  brought 
to  Lowell  by  the  railroad,  and  deposited  in 
storehouses  ready  for  use.  When  wanted, 


A   LOWELL    COTTON    MILL.  77 

it  is  wheeled  by  the  yard  hands  to  the  card- 
ing-room,  which  is  on  the  first  floor  of  the 
mill.  Here  the  bales  are  opened,  and  the 
cotton  from  different  bales  is  well  mixed 
together,  in  order  to  give  the  whole  a  more 
uniform  appearance.  It  is  then  made  to 
pass  through  a  machine  called  the  "  whip- 
per,"  by  which  it  is  beaten  and  thrown  into 
a  light  state.  Passing  through  another  ma- 
chine called  the  "conical  willow,"  it  comes 
out  still  more  opened  and  cleansed,  and  is 
ready  for  the  "  picker."  The  picker  rooms 
are  two  small  buildings  standing  a  few  feet 
removed  from  the  mill,  and  are  made  fire 
proof,  in  order  to  guard  against  ignition, 
which  is  liable  to  ensue  from  the  great 
rapidity  of  the  machinery.  The  cotton,  laid 
on  to  a  strip  of  cloth  or  leather  called  an 
"apron,"  is  drawn  into  the  picker  when  it 
is  thoroughly  opened  and  freed  from  lumps 
and  dust,  and  then,  passing  through  the  "  lap- 


78  A   LOWELL    COTTON   MILL. 

per,"  it  comes  out  in  sheets,  nicely  wound 
round  a  wooden  cylinder.  These  laps  are 
then  taken  to  the  card  room,  and  are  applied 
to  the  backs  of  cards.  They  go  through  two 
processes  of  carding,  the  first  by  the  "  break- 
er," after  which  the  cotton  passes  through  the 
"lap- winder"  or  "doubler,"  by  which  it  is 
wound  again  on  the  lap,  and  then  through  the 
"  finisher,"  by  which  the  carding  process  is 
completed. 

Thus  far  only  male  hands  have  been  em- 
ployed, as  the  work  is  both  laborious  and 
disagreeable.  The  cotton  is  now  taken  by 
female  operatives  who  carry  it  first  through 
the  "drawing  frame,"  by  which  the  fibres 
are  laid  in  one  direction,  and  are  brought 
together  in  a  rope-like  form,  then  through 
the  "  double  speeder,"  which  twists  this  into 
a  coarse  "  roving,"  and  then  through  the 
"  stretcher,"  which  still  further  draws  the 
roving  out.  In  this  stage  it  is  packed  in 


A     LOWELL    COTTON    MILL.  79 


boxes,  and  by  means  of  the  "elevator"  it 
is  taken  up  into  the  spinning  room  above. 

In  the  carding  room  there  are  two  over- 
seers, three  hands  employed  with  the  pickers, 
two  grinders  to  keep  the  cards  in  order,  five 
persons  employed  in  stripping  the  cards  —  all 
of  the  above  being  males.  There  are  like- 
wise in  this  room  eight  females  attending 
the  drawing  frames,  about  a  dozen  more 
employed  upon  the  speeders,  together  with 
three  or  four  spare  hands,  who  are  employed 
by  the  day,  the  others  being  paid  by  the 
quantity  of  work  got  off.  Wages  of  the 
drawers  will  average  one  dollar  sixty-two 
and  a  half  cents  per  week ;  speeder  hands 
about  two  dollars  per  week.  In  this  case, 
and  throughout  this  chapter,  when  wages  are 
given,  the  net  earnings  are  meant  exclusive 
of  board. 

From  the  carding  room  we  pass  up  to  the 
spinning  room.  The  spinning  frames  in  Low- 


80  A   LOWELL    COTTON   MILL. 


ell  are  all  "  throstles,"  both  warp  and  filling. 
A  large  mill  will  soon  be  completed,  where 
mule  spinning  will  be  adopted,  and  this  will  be 
the  first  and  only  one  of  the  kind  in  the  city. 
In  a  Lowell  spinning  room  about  sixty  girls 
are  employed,  including  both  warp  and  filling 
spinners,  and  four  or  five  spare  hands.  In 
the  room  there  are  three  male  overseers,  and 
one  man  to  distribute  roving.  Spinning  is 
light  and  easy  work  compared  either  with 
weaving  or  attending  the  speeders,  but  re- 
quires more  skill  than  drawing.  The  pay  for 
this  work  is  graduated  accordingly,  averaging 
about  one  dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  per 
week. 

On  the  speeders,  throstles,  warpers,  and 
dressers,  there  are  clocks,  which  mark  the 
quantity  of  work  that  is  done.  The  clocks 
are  made  to  run  one  week,  at  the  end  of  which 
the  overseer  transfers  the  account  to  a  board 
which  hangs  in  the  room  in  the  sight  of  all  the 


A    LOWELL    COTTON    MILL.  81 


operatives.  From  this  board  the  monthly 
watros  of  each  operative  are  ascertained. 

The  filling  is  now  ready  for  the  weaver ; 
but  the  warp  undergoes  yet  further  preparation 
in  what  is  called  the  "  dressing  room."  Here 
the  yarn  is  warped  off  from  the  spools  upon 
section  beams.  These  beams  are  then  trans- 
ferred to  the  dresser,  who  sizes,  and  brushes, 
and  dries  the  yarn.  The  yarn  on  eight  of 
these  beams  is  then  tranferred  to  a  loom  beam, 
the  ends  of  the  yarn  being  drawn  in  through 
the  harness  and  reed.  This  is  done  by  hand, 
and  it  is  the  first  and  only  hand  process  in  the 
manufacture  of  the  fabric. 

Warping  is  regarded  as  hard  work,  as  it 
requires  constant  standing,  and  reconnecting 
the  threads,  which  are  perpetually  running  off, 
or  are  breaking  between  the  spool  and  the 
beam.  The  pay  is  made  out  for  so  many 
thousand  yards  wound  on  a  section  beam,  and 
will  average  two  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents 


o— 


82  A    LOWELL    COTTON   MILL. 

per  week.  These  wages  are  made  high  solely 
on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the  work,  which 
in  other  respects  is  not  difficult,  and  requires 
no  rare  skill.  For  the  same  reason  the  va- 
rious processes  are  so  arranged,  that  the 
warpers  will  not  be  required  to  work  as  many 
hours  as  the  other  operatives,  they  being  fre- 
quently permitted  to  leave  the  mill  some  hours 
before  the  rest.  Dressing  is  paid  higher  than 
any  other  process,  because  it  demands  peculiar 
skill  and  judgment.  This  also  is  female  work, 
and  the  average  pay  for  it  is  from  two  dollars 
and  fifty  cents,  to  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents 
per  week,  while  from  five  to  six  are  occasion- 
ally earned  by  the  most  skilful  hands.  In  the 
dressing  room  are  usually  three  overseers, 
from  six  to  eight  dressers,  from  six  to  eight 
warpers,  and  from  six  to  eight  drawers-in. 
Drawing-in  is  light  and  easy  work,  the  opera- 
tive sitting  all  the  tune  by  her  window.  The 
pay,  being  piece  work,  will  vary  according  to 


A   LOWELL    COTTON    MIUL.  83 

dexterity,  but  will  average  from  two  to  three 

4 

dollars  per  week. 

We  now  come  to  the  weaving  room,  where 
the  materials  before  prepared  are  put  together 
in  cloth.  There  are  two  weaving  rooms  to 
each  mill.  In  each  room  are  two  or  three 
overseers,  and  a  boy  to  distribute  the  filling. 
In  both  rooms  there  are  from  one  hundred  and 
thirty,  to  one  hundred  and  forty  weavers  em- 
ployed. Paid  by  the  piece,  their  wages  will 
vary  according  to  diligence  and  skill,  bat  will 
average  from  two  dollars,  to  two  dollars  and  a 
quarter  per  week.  In  the  mills  which  make 
the  finer  kinds  of  cloth,  superior  skill  is  re- 
quired, and  wages  will  average  somewhat 
more. 

When  woven,  the  fabric  is  carried  to  the 
cloth  room.  Here  are  employed  one  male  over- 
seer, and  a  number  of  girls,  varying  from  ten 
to  twenty-five,  according  to  the  kind  of  goods 
made.  The  cloth  is  trimmed,  measured, 


84  LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING. 


folded,  and  recorded.     It  is  then  either  baled, 
or  delivered  to  the  print  works. 

Beside  the  hands  above  enumerated,  each 
mill  has  two  watchmen  on  duty  day  and  night, 
who  relieve  each  other  at  intervals  of  six 
hours  each.  Each  room,  likewise,  has  one 
woman,  generally  Irish,  who  does  nothing  but 
keep  the  room  clean,  by  constant  washing, 
scrubbing,  and  sweeping. 


LOWELL   CALICO   PRINTING. 

The  following  description  of  the  process  of 
calico  printing  was  kindly  furnished  for  this 
work  by  Dr.  SAMUEL  L.  DANA,  Chemist  to 
the  Merrimack  Print  Works,  and  author  of  a 
well  known  book  on  Agricultural  Chemistry. 

The  cloth  received  from  the  manufactory  is 
covered  with  a  fine  nap,  which,  if  printed, 
would  rise  up  and  give  the  colored  parts  a 


LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING.  85 


pepper-and-salt  look.  To  get  rid  of  this,  the 
cloth  is  singed,  not  as  the  cook  singes  a  fowl, 
by  a  blaze,  but  by  running  the  cloth  over  a 
half  cylinder  of  copper,  heated  red  hot.  The 
cloth  is  passed  over  dry,  and  repassed ;  after 
which  it  is  moistened  by  wet  rollers,  to  extin- 
guish any  shreds  which  might  happen  to  be  on 
fire.  This  singeing  process  always  excites  the 
wonder  of  the  beholder,  who  is  not  a  little 
astonished  that  the  cloth  is  not  injured. 

The  next  process  is  to  bleach  the  cloth.  On 
the  success  of  this  depends  all  the  after  work. 
A  good  white  is  not  only  the  soul  of  a  print, 
but  without  it  no  good  and  brilliant  color  can 
be  dyed.  The  greatest  difficulty  is  to  remove 
every  trace  of  grease  and  oil,  imparted  by  the 
spinner  and  weaver.  The  cloth  is  therefore 
put  into  big  tubs,  holding  five  hundred  pieces, 
and  steeped  in  warm  water  some  hours.  It  is 
then  washed  in  the  dash-wheel)  and  subjected 
to  the  following  operations,  which  convert  the 


86  LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING. 

oil  to  soap,  and  remove  it  with  the  coloring 
matter. 

1.  Boiled  by  steam  in  creamy  lime. 

2.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

3.  Boiled  in  alkali  by  steam. 

4.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

5.  Steeped  in  bleaching  powder   solution 
some  hours. 

6.  Steeped  in  oil  vitriol  and  water,  about 
the  strength  of  lemon  juice. 

7.  Washed  in  the  dash-wheel. 

8.  Squeezed  between  rollers. 

9.  Mangled  and  dried  in  air,  or  in  warm 
rooms,  built  for  this  purpose. 

The  cloth  is  now  perfectly  white,  and  loses 
not  so  much  in  weight  and  strength  as  by  the 
old  process  of  grass  bleaching. 

The  bleached  cloth  is  now  printed  with  one 
or  more  colors,  —  four  to  six  colors  may  be 
applied  by  the  printing  machine.  If  more  are 
wanted,  they  are  introduced  by  hand,  with 


LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING.  87 

blocks,  after  the  other  colors  are  finished. 
The  figure  or  design  is  engraved  on  a  copper 
roller,  each  color  having  a  separate  roller. 
The  color  which  the  beholder  sees  imprinted, 
as  he  watches  the  process,  is  not  the  color  that 
is  to  be,  when  the  print  is  finished.  The  color 
which  he  sees,  is,  with  the  exception  of  brown, 
or  blue,  or  black  occasionally,  fugitive.  It  is 
merely  what  is  called  "  sightening"  that  is,  a 
color  imparted  to  the  paste,  or  " thickening" 
which  is  imprinted  b,y  the  rollor  to  enable  the 
machine  printer  to  judge  of  the  perfectness  of 
the  work.  The  paste,  or  thickening,  contains 
the  mordant,  that  is,  the  peculiar  substance, 
which,  combining  chemically  with  the  cloth, 
enables  it  to  dye  a  peculiar  color,  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  mordant  and  dye-wood.  The 
cloth  dyes  only  where  the  mordant  is  applied, 
that  is,  on  the  printed  figure  only.  The  mor- 
dants generally  used  are  alum  and  copperas, 
each  of  which  is  first  changed  to  acetate  of 


00  LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING. 

alumina,  or  iron;  that  is,  the  color-maker 
takes  away  the  oil  of  vitriol  from  the  alum 
and  copperas,  and  substitutes  vinegar  in  its 
place.  Sometimes  the  iron  liquor,  as  it  is 
called,  is  made  by  dissolving  iron  turnings  in 
pyroligneous,  or  wood  acid. 

The  preparation  of  color,  and  the  thickening 
it  with  flour,  starch,  gum,  &c.,  is  a  distinct 
branch,  carried  on  in  the  color-shop  of  the 
print  works. 

It  may  be  added,  that  with  madder,  iron 
dyes  black  and  purple,  according  to  its 
strength;  alum,  dyes  red  of  various  shades, 
and  a  mixture  of  the  two  dyes  chocolate.  So 
that  out  of  the  same  dye  kettle  come  various 
colors,  according  to  the  mordant,  and  these 
colors  are  all  fast. 

The  cloth  having  been  printed  and  dried,  is 
" aged"  during  which  a  chemical  combination 
takes  place  between  the  mordant  and  cloth. 
Ordinarily  this  occurs  in  two  or  three  weeks, 


LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING.  89 


by  the  natural  affinity  of  the  cotton  fibre  and 
mordant ;  but  by  certain  agents  this  chemical 
change  is  hastened  and  perfectly  effected  in 
two  or  three  days ;  but  as  this  process  goes  on 
in  conjunction  with  the  others,  the  visiter  sees 
only  the  folding  up  and  winding  into  rolls  of 
the  pieces  of  cloth,  though  all  the  time  this 
change  is  going  on.  The  cloth  is  then  passed, 
by  means  of  rollers,  through  a  boiling-hot  so- 
lution of  phosphate  of  soda,  to  render  insolu- 
ble any  uncombined  mordant,  and  to  wet  the 
cloth  evenly.  It  is  then  washed  in  the  dash- 
wheel,  and  after  this,  to  remove  the  thickening, 
passed,  for  twenty  or  thirty  minutes,  through 
bran,  or  meal  and  water,  quite  hot,  washed, 
and  it  is  now  ready  for  dyeing. 

The  dye-woods  used  are,  madder,  bark,  or 
logwood,  the  last  only  for  mourning  prints,  or 
black  and  white.  The  dye-wood  is  put  into 
large  wooden  vats,  with  a  portion  of  water, 
and  then  the  pieces  of  cloth,  sixteen  in  each 


90  LOWELL    CALICO   PRINTING. 


vat,  are  introduced  over  a  winch,  moved  by 
water-power.  Steam  is  then  admitted,  the 
goods  turned  through  and  through,  round  and 
round,  gradually  heating  the  water,  till,  at  the 
end  of  two  hours,  it  rises  near  to  boiling,  and 
the  mordanted  cloth  is  perfectly  dyed.  It  is 
taken  out,  rinsed,  and  washed  in  the  dash- 
wheel. 

The  cloth  after  this  is  passed,  by  means  of  a 
winch,  either  through  hot  water  and  bran,  or 
through  hot  soap,  for  half  an  hour,  washed, 
and  then  again  put  through  these  operations, 
again  washed,  and  then  rinsed  through  a  hot 
solution  of  -chloride  of  soda,  washed  again, 
squeezed,  and  dried  either  in  air  or  in  warm 
rooms.  Sometimes  they  are  mangled  with 
some  stiffening,  and  so  are  finished. 

The  visiter  of  print  works  will  see  a  great 
number  of  men,  busily  employed,  dipping 
wooden  frames,  on  which  are  stretched  pieces 
of  cloth,  printed  with  a  brown  figure,  into  deep 


LOWELL    CALICO    PRINTING.  91 

vats,  filled  with  a  green-blue  liquor.  The 
cloth  comes  out  with  a  greenish  hue,  and  im- 
mediately grows  blue  in  the  air,  on  all  parts, 
except  where  the  brown  figure  was.  That 
resists  or  throws  off  the  blue  vat.  Now  the 
blue  vat  contains  a  solution  of  indigo  in  lime 
water.  Indigo  is  one  of  the  most  insoluble 
substances  in  water ;  but  by  means  of  copperas 
and  lime,  the  oxygen  of  the  indigo  is  abstracted 
by  the  iron ;  it  then  becomes  greenish,  and  is 
dissolved  by  the  lime  water.  Exposed  to  air, 
it  again  absorbs  oxygen,  and  becomes  blue.  It 
is  during  this  change  from  green  to  blue  that 
it  becomes  chemically  united  to  the  cloth. 
The  brown  figure  resists,  because  it  is  a  prepa- 
ration of  copper,  which  yields  its  oxygen  to 
the  indigo,  on  the  figure,  while  in  the  vat. 
The  figure  becomes  covered  with  blue  indigo 
in  the  vat ;  it  forms  then  no  affinity  with  the 
cloth,  and  consequently,  after  the  copper  has 
been  removed  by  a  weak  acid,  the  brown  spot, 


92  LOWELL    CALICO   PRINTING. 

or  figure,  remains  white,  and  so  is  produced 
the  blue  ground  with  white  figures.  The 
whole  is  a  most  exquisite  chemical  process 
from  beginning  to  end,  equalled  only  by  the 
process  for  China  blue,  where  blue  figures  are 
raised  on  a  white  ground.  This  is  done  by 
printing  on  the  figure,  with  fine  ground  in- 
digo, thickened  with  paste,  and  thus  by  al- 
ternate immersions  in  lime  water  and  cop- 
peras liquor,  the  indigo  is  dissolved,  and  fixed 
on  the  spots  where  printed,  by  a  play  of 
chemical  affinities  similar  to  those  described  in 
blue  dipping. 

Black  and  white,  and  red,  or  chocolate 
and  white,  are  made  by  passing  the  cloth 
through  red  or  iron  liquor,  or  their  mixture, 
and  after  squeezing,  while  the  cloth  is 
open  and  flat,  that  is  dried  in  hot  flues.  Ev- 
ery part  of  the  cloth  is  thus  imbued  with 
mordant.  The  process  is  termed  "pading? 
It  is  then  printed,  with  citric  acid,  (lemon 


LOWELL   CALICO    PRINTING.  98 

juice,)  thickened  with  roasted  starch.  This 
add  discharge^  the  mordant,  and  consequently, 
when  dyed  as  usual,  the  discharged  figures  are 
left  white.  Logwood  is  the  dye  for  black,  and 
madder  is  the  dye  for  reds  and  chocolates. 

The  designing  of  patterns  is  a  distinct 
branch  of  art.  Usually  one  or  more  designers 
are  employed  by  each  establishment.  The 
pattern,  when  approved,  is  handed  to  the  en- 
graver, who  first  makes  a  sketch  of  it  to  fit  his 
roller,  and  so  arranged  that  the  small  pattern 
may  cover  that  without  any  marked  appear- 
ance of  joining.  The  engraving  is  made  from 
the  sketch,  usually  on  a  small  steel  die,  the 
pattern  or  figure  being  cut  into  the  steel. 
This  die  is  first  hardened,  and  is  then  trans- 
ferred to  a  similar  steel  cylinder,  called  a 
mill  The  figures  now  stand  up,  or  are  in  re- 
lief; the  soft  steel  mill  is  then  hardened,  and 
being  applied  by  powerful  pressure,  the  relief 
is  sank  into  a  copper  roller,  from  which  it  is 


94  A   LOWELL    WOOLLEN   MILL. 

printed  upon  the  cloth.  Such  is  a  brief  outline 
of  calico  printing.  It  is  a  combination  of 
taste,  art,  mechanical  and  chemical  science, 
and  in  all  its  parts  affords  a  beautiful  example 
of  the  mutual  dependence  of  art  and  science 
on  each  other ;  producing  results  effective  only 
from  their  exquisite  adaptations." 

There  are  two  calico  printing  establishments 
in  Lowell  —  the  Merrimack,  and  Hamilton; 
and  both  print  over  fourteen  million  yards  of 
calico  per  year. 


A  LOWELL  WOOLLEN  MILL. 

But  one  establishment  in  this  city  is  appro- 
priated to  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloth. 
This  is  the  Middlesex  Company.  Their  wool 
comes  from  the  States  of  Vermont,  New 
Hampshire,  New  York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 


A   LOWELL    WOOLLEN   MILL.  95 


Illinois,  Missouri,  and  some,  recently,  from 
the  Territory  of  Wisconsin.  The  quantity 
which  is  here  annually  manufactured  equals 
the  produce  of  four  hundred  thousand  sheep. 
Received  into  the  company's  store-room,  it  is 
first  assorted  into  eleven  different  kinds,  ac- 
cording to  degrees  of  fineness.  The  wool  is 
then  dyed ;  after  which  it  passes  through  the 
picker.  From  the  picker  it  is  taken  succes- 
sively to  the  carding,  spinning,  dressing,  and 
weaving  rooms.  The  cloth  is  then  "burled," 
as  it  is  called,  by  which  is  meant  a  careful 
removal  of  all  imperfect  threads ;  and  the  next 
processes  are  those  of  scouring  and  fulling. 
At  this  stage  of  the  manufacture,  the  cloth  is 
applied  to  the  "gig,"  or  napping  machine,  by 
which  the  nap  is  raised;  after  which  it  is 
shorn,  passing  through  the  shearing  machine 
from  ten  to  sixteen  times.  The  fine  gloss  of 
the  cloth  is  then  put  upon  it  by  steam ;  and 
after  another  careful  examination  by  the 


96  A   LOWELL    WOOLLEN   MILL. 


"linters,"  it  is  marked,  pressed,  measured, 
done  up  in  papers,  boxed,  and  sent  to 
Boston. 

The  large  mill  of  this  company  is  seven  sto- 
ries high,  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  feet  long, 
and  forty-six  feet  wide.  Another,  of  nearly  the 
same  size,  is  soon  to  be  erected.  The  quan- 
tity of  broadcloth  and  cassimeres  annually 
made,  is  about  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
thousand  yards  of  the  former,  and  six  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  yards  of  the  latter. 
Some  of  the  yearly  expenses  attending  this 
are  as  follows  :  logwood,  six  thousand  dollars ; 
indigo,  twenty-two  thousand  dollars ;  glue, 
five  thousand  dollars;  soap,  eight  thousand 
dollars ;  packing  boxes,  one  thousand  six  hun- 
dred dollars ;  wrapping  paper,  one  thousand 
dollars.  Sales  of  cloth  have  amounted  to 
eight  hundred  thousand  dollars  per  year. 
The  whole  importation  of  cassimeres  from 
England  to  the  United  States,  in  1844,  was 


o 


A    LOWELL    CARPET    MILL.  97 

seven,  thousand  pieces;  while  this  company 
alone  manufactured,  in  that  year,  more  than 
twenty  thousand  pieces. 


A  LOWELL   CARPET   MILL. 

The  Carpet  Mill -of  the  Lowell  Manufac- 
turing Company  is  the  only  one  in  the  city. 
The  wool  that  is  here  used  is  all  imported 
from  South  America  or  the  Mediterranean. 
Our  domestic  wools  are  not  coarse  enough  for 
this  manufacture.  Hope  is  cherished,  that 
by  the  extensive  introduction  of  the  Leicester 
breed  of  sheep  into  the  Western  States,  the 
necessity  of  importation  may  gradually  cease. 
The  Lowell  Company  work  up,  annually,  two 
thousand  bales,  averaging  one  thousand  pounds 
of  unwashed  wool  to  the  bale.  The  cost  of 
this  is  less  than  seven  cents  per  pound  abroad. 
It  contains  fifty  per  cent,  of  dirt ;  in  addition 


98  A   LOWELL    CARPET    MILL. 


to  which  the  South  American  wool  has* from 
fifteen  to  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  "  burrs,"  and 
the  Mediterranean  from  five  to  ten  per  cent. 

In  the  manufacture,  the  first  process  is  the 
washing  and  burring  of  the  wool.  The  burring 
is  thoroughly  and  expeditiously  done  by  a 
machine,  whicK  was  invented  by  a  Lowell 
mechanic,  and  which  has  been  patented  both 
in  this  country  and  in  England.  The  wool 
is  then  taken  to  the  combing  machine,  in  order 
to  separate  the  long  fibres  of  the  wool  from 
the  short.  From  the  former  the  worsted  yarn 
is  made  for  the  warp.  The  separation  of  the 
long  fibres  of  the  wool  for  manufacturing  was 
first  undertaken  in  Worstead,  a  market  town 
in  the  County  of  Norfolk,  England,  and  hence 
the  name  applied  to  yarn  thus  made.  The 
short  fibres  of  the  wool,  technically  called  the 
"  Noyls,"  are  spun  into  filling,  by  the  common 
carding  and  spinning  process.  No  machine 
can  more  effectually  and  perfectly  answer  its 


o  - 


A    LOWELL    CARPET    MILL.  99 

end  than  this  combing  machine.  Superin- 
tended by  a  female  operative,  who  is  assisted 
by  a  boy  and  girl,  it  does  the  work  of  many 
men,  and  does  it  better  than  it  could  be 
done  by  hand.  This  also  is  the  ingenious  in- 
vention of  Lowell  artizans. 

As  soon  as  the  yarn  is  cleansed  and  dyed 
it  is  ready  for  the  power  loom.  No  descrip- 
tion of  this  remarkable  machine  can  here  be 
offered,  nor  are  its  operations  often  understood 
even  by  those  who  see  them.  Placed  in  a 
lofty  room,  built  expressly  for  its  use,  and 
supplied  with  warp  and  filling  yarn,  it  turns 
out  twenty-five  yards  per  day  of  ingrain  car- 
peting, of  any  design,  and  any  colors  which 
may  be  preferred.  It  requires  the  superintend- 
ence only  of  a  young  woman,  who  is  notified  by 
a  bell,  which  the  machine  itself  rings,  of  any 
imperfection  of  its  work.  This  loom  is  the 
invention  of  E.  B.  Bigelow,  Esq.,  a  native 
of  Massachusetts,  and  at  one  tune  a  resident 


100  A    LOWELL    CARPET   MILL. 

of  Lowell.  Fifty  of  these  looms  are  in  con- 
stant operation,  in  the  only  mill  in  the  world 
for  power-loom  carpet  weaving.  Carpets  so 
woven  are  firmer,  match  better,  and  have  a 
truer  selvedge  than  those  woven  by  hand. 
By  the  power  loom,  a  young  woman  easily 
does  the  work,  which,  by  the  hand  process,  re- 
quired the  hard  labor  of  three  men* 

The  Lowell  Company  are  making,  at  the 
present  time,  three  hundred  thouand  yards  of 
carpeting  per  year,  they  also  make  rugs,  the 
tufted,  Chenille,  and  Brussels,  employing  for 
this  purpose,  twenty-five  hands,  who  average 
twenty-five  rugs  per  day.  A  power  loom  for 
Brussels  carpet  weaving,  is  nearly  completed, 
which  is  the  only  one  in  the  country,  and  is 
the  invention,  likewise,  of  Mr.  Bigelow.  It 
has  been  purchased  by  the  Lowell  Company, 
who  are  forming  plans  with  reference  to  the 
erection  of  a  mill,  for  the  extensive  use  of 
these  looms. 


HOURS  OF  LABOR.          101 


HOURS  OF  LABOR. 

The  following  table  shows  the  average  hours 
per  day  of  running  the  mills,  throughout  the 
year,  on  all  the  Corporations  in  Lowell : 

h.     m.  Ii.     m. 

January, 11  24  July, 12  45 

February, 12  00  August, 12  45 

March, 11  52  September,-  •  •  12  23 

April, 13  31  October, 12  10 

May, 12  45  November, ...  11  56 

June, 12  45  December,  •  .  •  11  24 

In  addition  to  the  above,  it  should  be  stated, 
that  lamps  are  never  lighted  on  Saturday 
evening,  and  that  four  holidays  are  allowed  in 
the  year,  viz.  Fast  Day,  Fourth  of  July, 
Thanksgiving  Day,  and  Christmas  Day. 

No  fact  connected  with  the  manufacturing 
business,  has  been  so  often,  or  so  strongly  ob- 


102  HOURS    OF   LABOR. 

jected  to  as  this,  which  appears  from  the  above 
table,  that  the  average  daily  time  of  run- 
ning the  mills  is  twelve  hours  and  ten  minutes. 
It  is  no  part  of  the  object  of  this  book  to  de- 
fend any  thing  which  may  be  shown  to  be 
wrong,  its  sole  purpose  being  a  careful  presen- 
tation of  facts.  Arguments  are  not  needed  to 
prove  that  toil,  if  it  be  continued  for  this 
length  of  time,  each  day,  month  after  month, 
and  year  after  year,  is  excessive,  and  too  much 
for  the  tender  frames  of  young  women  to  bear. 
No  one  can  more  sincerely  desire,  than  the 
writer  of  this  book,  that  they  had  more  leisure 
time  for  mental  improvement  and  social  en- 
joyment. It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that  their  work  is  comparatively  light.  All 
the  hard  processes,  not  conducted  by  men, 
are  performed  by  machines,  the  movements 
of  which  female  operatives  are  required 
merely  to  oversee  and  adjust.  And  then  as 
to  their  long  confinement  and  care,  there  is  a 


HOURS    OF   LABOR.  103 


mitigation  which,  in  discussions  on  this  subject, 
has  been  almost  altogether  overlooked,  but 
which  is  of  such  vital  importance  that  it  merits 
the  most  careful  attention. 

We  have  given  above  the  hours  per  day  of 
operating  the  mills.  It  must  be  well  under- 
stood what  this  means.  These  are  the  hours 
for  running  the  wheels.  It  does  not  follow 
that  all  operatives  work  this  number  of  hours, 
or  are  in  attendance  this  number  of  hours. 
This  is  not  the  case.  By  a  system  adjusted  to 
secure  this  end,  by  keeping  engaged  a  number 
of  spare  hands,  by  occasional  permissions  of 
absence,  and  by  an  allowed  exchange  of  work 
among  the  girls,  the  average  number  of  hours 
in  which  they  are  actually  employed  is  not 
more  than  ten  and  a  half.  They  are  out  to  go 
shopping,  to  repair  their  clothes,  to  take  care 
of  themselves  in  any  occasional  illness,  to  see 
friends  visiting  the  city,  to  call  on  sick  friends 
here ;  nor  are  reasonable  requests  of  this  kind 


104  HOURS    OF   LABOR. 

refused.  Many  of  these  girls,  moreover,  in 
the  course  of  each  year,  take  a  vacation  of  a 
few  weeks,  to  return  to  their  homes.  In  these 
absences  the  work  of  the  mill  is  not  suspended. 
The  wheels  continue  their  revolutions  for  the 
prescribed  number  of  hours.  The  processes 
are  temporarily  superintended  by  other  hands. 
To  suppose  that  every  operative  is  on  duty 
just  as  long  as  the  machinery  is  in  motion,  is 
an  error  of  the  most  deceptive  kind.  Yet  this 
fallacy  has  been  assumed  in  almost  all  the  dis- 
cussions on  this  subject.  The  fact  has  been 
overlooked  of  the  great  number  of  absences 
from  the  mills.  These  absences  reduce  the 
average  of  work-hours  for  the  girls  to  the  num- 
ber just  stated  —  ten  and  a  half.  This  is  not  a 
mere  assertion.  It  is  a  carefully  ascertained, 
and  well  established  fact,  in  verification  of 
which  proof  will  now  be  submitted. 

Each  overseer  keeps  a  record  of  all  the 
time  his  hands   are   employed,  in  days  and 


HOURS    OF    LABOR.  105 

quarter  of  days.  These  records,  in  one  mill 
in  the  city,  have  been  subjected  to  a  thorough 
analysis.  The  space  of  time  over  which  this 
analysis  has  been  carried  is  one  year.  In 
Boott  Mill,  No.  1,  there  are  one  hundred  and 
six  girls  who  have  been  employed  one  year, 
working  by  the  job.  This  is  the  whole  num- 
ber in  that  mill  who  are  thus  employed  and 
have  worked  that  time  ;  and  their  time  record 
gives  the  following  results  : 

In  the  Weaving  room  56  girls  worked  14,097  days 
Do.    Dressing    do.   17        do.  4,403j  do. 

Do.    Spinning    do.   21         do.  5,615    do. 

Do.    Card  do.   12        do.  3,536|  do. 

Total,    .    .     106  girls  working  27,652    do. 

Average  number  of  days  per  year  to  each 
girl,  two  hundred  and  sixty  and  eighty-six  one 
hundredths.  Average  number  of  hours  per 
day,  to  each  girl,  ten  hours  and  eight  minutes. 
Beside  the  one  hundred  and  six  girls  who 
work  by  the  job,  there  are  in  that  mill  thirty- 


106  HOURS    OF   LABOR. 


one  girls  who  work  by  the  day.  The  time 
record  of  these  girls  has  been  examined  for 
the  space  of  the  last  two  months ;  and  it  is 
found  that  the  average  number  of  hours  which 
they  have  worked  per  day,  in  that  time,  is  ten 
hours  and  forty-two  minutes. 

In  that  same  mill  are  employed  twenty- 
nine  other  girls,  at  work  by  the  job ;  but  as 
they  have  been  employed  less  than  one  year, 
no  examination  has  been  made  of  their  num- 
ber of  hours.  Fourteen  other  females  are 
connected  with  that  mill,  in  readiness  to  be 
employed  in  starting  new  machinery,  put  in  a 
room  recently  finished  in  the  basement ;  and 
these,  together  with  two  female  overseers  and 
four  sweepers,  whose  time  has  not  been  aver- 
aged, but  who,  it  is  well  known,  work  no 
longer  than  the  others,  are  all  the  females  that 
are  employed  in  that  mill,  viz.  one  hundred 
and  eighty-six. 

The  result  of  the  whole  is,  as  we  before 


HOURS    OF   LABOR.  107 

stated,  that  the  average  number  of  per  diem 
hours  is  less  than  ten  and  a  half.  In  the 
above  estimate,  the  absences  of  the  girls  from 
the  mills,  when  they  put  their  work  in  the 
care  of  those  who  may  be  disposed  mutually 
to  relieve  one  another,  are  not  taken  into  the 
account.  No  computation  of  the  extent  of 
such  absences  can  be  made.  It  is  well  known, 
however,  to  be  considerable,  and  would  still 
further  reduce  the  average  above  named. 

In  connection  with  this  general  topic,  one 
or  two  other  points  remain  to  be  considered. 
It  happens  occasionally,  in  the  various  pro- 
cesses of  the  manufacture,  that  one  portion  of 
the  work  runs  ahead  of  another ;  requiring, 
for  an  equalization,  the  running  of  some  extra 
hours.  This  takes  place  only  in  the  winter 
season,  when  the  lamps,  never  in  the  whole 
mill,  but  only  in  one  or  two  of  its  rooms,  are 
kept  burning  till  nine  or  ten  o'clock.  On  no 
Corporation  is  this  done,  but  as  a  rare  excep- 


108  HOURS    OF   LABOR. 

tion  to  the  general  rules  of  the  mill,  while  in 
most  mills  it  is  not  done  at  all.  Thus,  during 
the  past  winter,  when  the  temptations  to  extra 
work,  through  great  profits,  were  as  strong  as 
ever,  in  the  majority  of  the  mills,  the  wheels 
were  .  not  run,  in  any  instance,  after  half-past 
seven  o'clock.  It  occasionally  happens,  again, 
j  that  some  ambitious  girls,  finding  their  health 
and  strength  sufficient,  and  stimulated  by  the 
hope  of  greater  gain,  undertake  extra  work. 
In  .  relation,  however,'  to  both  of  these  cases, 
of  extra  hours  and  extra  work,  the  labor  per- 
formed is  always  voluntary.  No  girl  is  re- 
quired to  undertake  it.  The  young  woman, 
who  is  able,  is  generally  willing  to  engage  in 
it,  as  she  draws  the  pay,  to  the  extent  of  the 
extra  work,  of  two  girls,  while  she  incurs  the 
expense  of  the  board  of  but  one. 

Having  noticed  the  occasions  of  voluntary 
extra  work,  it  is  but  just  to  allude  to  an  exi- 
gency, which  occurs  every  season,  when  work 


HOURS    OF   LABOR.  109 

is  suspended.  Eighteen  of  the  twenty-seven 
cotton  mills  in  the  city  are  situated  on  the 
river  side,  and  once  or  twice  in  each  year  are 
obliged  to  suspend  parts  of  their  works,  some- 
times for  days  together,  in  consequence  of 
back  water.  In  such  cases,  the  pay  of  the 
board  of  the  girls  is  continued,  though  they 
render  no  work. 

Thus  we  have  taken  one  mill  in  the  city, 
and  presented  the  average  number  of  hours  in 
which  its  operatives  are  actually  employed, 
and  have  noticed  the  slight  variations,  one 
way  and  the  other,  which  are  liable  from  time 
to  time  to  occur.  It  only  remains  to  be  added, 
that  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that  an  exami- 
nation of  the  time  books  of  any  other  mill, 
would  be  attended  with  any  different  results. 
Under  the  operation  of  this  system  there  are, 
undoubtedly,  cases  where  the  health  of  opera- 
tives, either  from  natural  feebleness  of  consti- 
tution, or  from  an  over-excited  ambition  for 


110  HOURS    OF   LABOR. 

gain,  is  insufficient  for  the  work  and  is  broken 
down.  Such  instances  will  occur  in  almost  all 
employments  that  can  be  named.  Every  one 
knows  of  females  who  cannot  stand  the  hard 
work  of  domestic  service,  of  the  tailors'  shops, 
of  the  milliners'  rooms.  As  long  as  our  young 
country  women  are  obliged  to  toil,  all  hearts 
must  desire  that  their  toil  be  as  light  as  possi- 
ble, and  gladly  welcome  any  reform  by  which 
hours  of  labor  may  be  abridged.  How  far 
there  is  a  system  here  pursued  of  oppression 
and  excessive  labor,  the  reader  can  judge  for 
himself.  He  will  guard  against  the  fallacy 
and  injustice  of  supposing  that  the  same  hours 
of  service  are  demanded  alike  of  human  hands 
and  iron  wheels.  He  knows  of  many  a  store 
where  a  prosperous  business  is  done,  which  is 
opened  at  sunrise  in  the  morning,  and  is  not 
closed  until  ten  o'clock  at  night.  It  does  not 
follow  that  all  hands  there  employed  are  kept 
on  the  stretch  of  business,  month  after  month, 

.  , , 6 


o 

WAGES.  1  1  1 

and  year  after  year,  for  sixteen  hours  a  day. 
True,  the  store  is  opened,  and  the  goods  are 
sold,  and  the  process  is  continually  going  on ; 
but  not  all  the  hours  by  the  same  hands.  The 
store  has  its  complement  of  clerks  and  sales- 
men— this  performs  one  operation,  that  per- 
forms another  ;  they  supply  each  other's  places 
and  assist  one  another,  and  the  average  of 
their  work  may  be  no  more  than  falls  to  the 
ordinary  lot  of  other  toiling  classes.  An 
average  like  this  we  have  endeavored  to  es- 
tablish in  the  case  of  female  factory  opera- 
tives. The  actual  effect  of  their  work  on  their 
health  will  be  seen  by  facts  hereafter  to  be 
presented. 


WAGES. 

Precise  statements  will  hereafter  be  given 
of  tHe  average  pay  of  male  and  female  hands. 


112  WAGES. 


Only  some  general  views  of  this  subject  will 
now  be  offered.  Operatives  entering  the  mill 
at  once  receive  pay.  In  other  arts  they  are 
obliged  to  go  through  some  expensive  process 
of  learning.  The  young  woman  from  the 
country,  employed  at  first  as  a  spare  hand, 
and  a  pupil  to  the  business,  receives  fifty-five 
cents  per  week  besides  her  board.  Thus  the 
companies  educate  nearly  all  their  hands,  and 
as  these  hands  are  entirely  changed  every  few 
years,  they  have  at  all  times  thousands  in 
their  pay  as  mere  learners.  The  female  oper- 
ative will,  in  a  few  months,  earn  four  and  six 
pence,  one  dollar,  one  dollar  and  a  half,  per 
week,  according  to  her  dexterity  and  diligence. 
Hands  are  never  paid  by  barter,  store  orders, 
or  the  company's  goods.  Every  month  they 
are  paid  by  notes  of  the  Eailroad  Bank,  con- 
vertible at  any  hour  into  gold  and  silver. 
From  the  time  that  the  first  mill  was  erected 
in  Lowell  to  the  present  day,  no  operatives 


p 

WAGES. 

employed  in  the  mills  have  lost  a 
of  their  just  earnings,  through  any  inability  or 
neglect  of  the  Corporations.  While  the  aver- 
age pay  of  all  female  operatives  is,  at  the 
present  time,  about  one  dollar  and  ninety- 
three  cents  per  week,  beside  board,  instances 
are  not  uncommon  of  their  earning  three  and 
four  dollars  per  week.  On  the  June  pay  roll 
of  fifty  girls,  the  author  counted  up  the  names 
of  twenty-four  who  received  four  dollars  and 
seventy-five  cents  per  week,  beside  board; 
and  this  without  either  extra  hours  or  extra 
work.  This,  however,  is  given  as  an  unusual 
case.  It  will  hereafter  be  seen  how  frequently 
the  prospect  of  greater  gain,  draws  young 
women,  who  have  kept  country  schools,  to 
working  in  the  mills  in  Lowell.  As  another 
evidence  of  their  great  earnings,  it  may  be 
stated,  that  it  is  estimated  that  the  factory 
girls  of  this  city  have,  in  round  numbers,  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  the  Lowell  Insti- 


114  WAGES. 


tution  for  Savings.  Cases  like  the  following, 
quoted  from  the  discharge  book,  kept  in  one 
of  the  Corporation  counting-rooms,  might  be 
presented  in  great  numbers.. 

«  Sept.  14,  1844.  Eunice  .*  *  *  worked 
twelve  months,  discharged  to  go  home.  She 
left  home  in  *  *  *  Me.,  just  one  year  since, 
and  promised  to  return  in  a  year.  She  has 
clothed  herself  well,  and  carries  with  her 
seventy-five  dollars,  net  savings  of  her  year's 
work :  has  lost  three  days  from  all  causes." 

"  Oct.  14.  Mary  *  *  *  worked  nine  years, 
discharged  to  go  on  Lowell  Corporation.  She 
and  her  sister,  who  left  a  short  time  since  to 
be  married,  and  who  had  worked  for  us  over 
ten  years,  have  never  lost  so  much  time  as 
they  have  made  up  by  extra  work.  They  are 
Irish.  Their  father  died  about  nine  years 
ago.  They  have  since  entirely  supported 
their  mother,  having  built  her  a  house,  costing 
six  hundred  dollars,  in  which  they  have  kept 


WAGES.  115 


house  together.  They  own  a  pew,  which  cost 
them  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars, 
and  they  have  from  one  hundred  to  two  hun- 
dred dollars  each  at  interest." 

"  June  14,  1845.  Harriet  *  *  *  one  year, 
discharged  to  go  home.  This  is  her  first  visit 
to  Lowell,  has  never  worked  in  any  factory 
before,  was  not  well  when  she  came,  has  lost 
considerable  time,  has  clothed  herself  well, 
and  carries  home  with  her  thirty  dollars." 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  give  here  the 
pay  days  on  the  Corporations. 

Appletpn  Co.  week  after  last  Saturday  in  each  month. 

Boott         "  ';         first  " 

Lowell  Bleaching  Co.  Wed.  after  last  Sat.  each  month. 

Hamilton  Co.  week  after  last  Sat.  but  one  each  month'. 

Lowell  Co.  week  after  last  Saturday  in  each  month. 

Locks  &  Canals  Co.  Tues.  after  last  Sat.  each  month. 

Lawrence  Co.  week  after  second  Sat.  in  each  month. 

Massachusetts  Co.  week  after  third  Sat.  in  each  month. 

Merrimack  Co.  the  Saturday  before  16th  of  each  month. 

Middlesex  Co.  Friday  and  Saturday  after  the  end  of 
the  month;  but  if  the  month  ends  on  Tuesday, 
Wednesday  or  Thursday,  then  on  the  Friday  and 
Saturday  of  the  next  week. 


116       COMFORT  AND  HEALTH. 


Suffolk  Co.  week  after  last  Saturday  in  each  month. 
Tremont  Co.  week  after  last  Saturday  in  each  month. 


PROVISIONS  FOR  THE  COMFORT  AND  HEALTH 
OF  THE  OPERATIVES. 

From  the  boarding-houses  to  the  mills  are 
laid  side-walks  of  brick  and  stone,  for  the 
comfort  of  the  operatives  in  wet  and  muddy 
walking.  The  mills  themselves  are  kept  of  a 
uniform  temperature,  being  heated  in  cold 
weather  either  by  steam,  or  by  hot-air  fur- 
naces. The  rooms  are  lofty,  are  well  ventila- 
ted, and  are  kept  as  free  from  dust  as  is  possi- 
ble, while  the  machinery  is  carefully  boxed,  or 
otherwise  secured  against  accidents.  The  mu- 
nificent provision  made  by  the  Corporations 
for  a  hospital  for  sick  operatives,  will  be  par- 
ticularly described  hereafter. 

On  no  point  are  such  conflicting  statements 
put  forth  as  on  that  of  the  health  of  the  opera- 


COMFORT    AND    HEALTH.  Ill 


tives.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  .arrive  at 
the  exact  facts  of  the  case.  Any  comparison 
between  their  health  in  Lowell,  and  their 
health  in  their  country  homes,  or  between  the 
health  of  the  operatives,  and  the  health  of  fe- 
males confined  to  other  occupations,  milliners, 
and  sempstresses,  for  example,  can  be  only 
general,  and  destitute  of  conclusive  precision. 
Replies  from  the  operatives  themselves,  to 
questions  submitted  to  them,  bearing  on  this 
point,  will  be  hereafter  presented,  and  will 
furnish  one  important  element  for  the  solution 
of  the  problem.  Another  element  is,  a  com- 
parison of  bills  of  mortality  in  Lowell,  with 
those  of  other  places.  Such  a  comparison  will 
here  be  made  between  the  yearly  number  of 
deaths  in  Providence,  Salem,  and  Worcester, 
and  the  yearly  number  in  this  city.  These 
places  have  been  selected  because  they  are 
near  the  size  of  Lowell,  and  present  the  va- 
riety of  a  city  and  rural  population. 


118       COMFORT  AND  HEALTH. 

The  population  of  Providence  was  twenty- 
three  thousand  one  hundred  and  seventy-two, 
in  1840,  and  it  is  supposed  that  it  did  not  vary 
much  from  that  in  the  two  following  years. 
The  average  for  these  three  years  may  be 
stated  at  twenty-three  thousand  five  hundred. 
The  number  of  deaths  was  as  follows:  In 
1840,  five  hundred  and  fifty-two;  in  1841, 
six  hundred  and  seventy-seven;  in  1842, 
seven  hundred  and  two,  —  averaging  in  three 
years  five  hundred  and  seventy-seven  per 
year. 

The  population  of  Salem  was  fifteen  thou- 
sand and  eighty-two,  in  1840,  and  it  is  sup- 
posed to  be  sixteen  thousand  at  the  present 
time.  The  average  for  five  years  may  be 
taken  at  fifteen  thousand  five  hundred.  Deaths 
in  1840,  three  hundred  and  fourteen  ;  in  1841, 
two  hundred  and  eighty-two ;  in  1842,  three 
hundred  and  nineteen  ;  in  1843,  two  hundred 
and  seventy  ;  in  1844,  two  hundred  and  sixty- 




COMFORT    AND    HEALTH.  119 

one,  —  averaging  in  five  years  two  hundred 
and  eighty-nine  per  year. 

The  population  of  Worcester  was  seven 
thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-seven,  in 
1840,  and  it  is  supposed  to  be  ten  thousand  at 
the  present  time.  We  will  assume  the  aver- 
age for  the  five  years  to  be  eight  thousand  five 
hundred.  Deaths  in  1840,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-one ;  in  1841,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
four;  in  1842,  one  hundred  and  sixty;  in 
1843,  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight;  in  1844, 
two  hundred  and  eight,  —  averaging  in  five 
years  one  hundred  and  sixty -four  per  year. 

The  population  of  Lowell  was  twenty  thou- 
sand nine  hundred  and  eighty-one  in  1840, 
and  was  twenty-five  thousand  one  hundred 
and  sixty-three  in  1844.  The  average  for  the 
five  years  may  be  stated  at  twenty-three  thou- 
sand. Deaths  in  1840,  four  hundred  and 
twenty-six ;  in  1841,  four  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  ;  in  1842,  four  hundred  and  seventy-three ; 


120       COMFORT  AND  HEALTH. 

in  1843,  three  hundred  sixty-three;  in  1844, 
three  hundred  and  sixty-two,  —  averaging  in 
five  years  four  hundred  and  sixteeen  per  year. 

Dividing  the  average  of  population  by  the 
average  of  deaths,  we  have  the  following  re- 
sults :  —  Deaths  to-  the  population  in  Provi- 
dence, one  in  forty-one  ;  in  Salem,  one  in  fifty- 
four  ;  in  Worcester,  one  in  fifty-two ;  in  Low- 
ell, one  in  fifty-seven,  —  being  an  advantage  in 
comparison  with  the  other  places,  of  fifteen, 
three,  and  five  per  cent,  in  favor  of  the  latter 
city. 

Still  another  aid  in  forming  an  opinion  as  to 
the  degree  of  health  enjoyed  by  the  operatives 
of  Lowell,  is  the  testimony  of  the  physicians 
of  this  city.  Full  and  decided  testimony  by 
them  has  been  repeatedly  given,  and  has 
been,  from  time  to  time,  published.  Some  re- 
ferences to  this  will  be  now  made.  Dr.  Elisha 
Bartlett,  before  named  as  the  first  Mayor  of 
this  city,  for  -more  than  twelve  years  a  resident 


COMFORT  AND  HEALTH.       121 

and  practising  Physician  in  Lowell,  and  widely 
known  as  an  eminent  lecturer  and  writer 
in  his  profession,  in  a  pamphlet  published  by 
him  in  1841,  on  the  "  Character  and  Condition 
of  the  Females  employed  in  the  Lowell  Mills," 
has  the  following  words,  the  italicised  senten- 
ces being  thus  marked  by  the  Dr.  himself:  — 
"  The  general  and  comparative  good  health 
of  the  girls  employed  in  the  mills  here,  and 
their  freedom  from  serious  disease,  have  long 
been  subjects  of  common  remark  among  our 
most  intelligent  and  experienced  physicians. 
The  manufacturing  population  of  this  city  is 
the  healthiest  portion  of  the  population,  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  this  should  not  be  the 
case.  They  are  but  Little  exposed  to  many  of 
the  strongest  and  most  prolific  causes  of  dis- 
ease, and  very  many  of  the  circumstances 
which  surround  and  act  upon  them  are  of  the 
most  favorable  hygienic  character.  They  are 
regular  in  all  their  habits.  They  are  early  up 


122       COMFORT  AND  HEALTH. 


m  the  morning,  and  early  to  bed  at  night. 
Their  fare  is  plain,  substantial,  and  good,  and 
their  labor  is  sufficiently  active,  and  sufficiently 
light  to  avoid  the  evils  arising  from  the  two 
extremes  of  indolence  and  over-exertion. 
They  are  but  little  exposed  to  the  sudden  vi- 
cissitudes, and  to  the  excessive  heats  and  colds 
of  the  seasons,  and  they  are  very  generally 
free  from  anxious  and  depressing  cares."  — 
Page  13. 

Upon  sundry  petitions  sent  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts House  of  Representatives,  at  the  last 
session  of  the  Legislature,  praying  for  a  re- 
duction of  the  hours  of  labor,  a  report  was  made 
by  the  special  committee,  to  whom  these  peti- 
tions were  referred,  and  was  published  by  or- 
der of  the  House,  March  12,  1845.  From 
this  report  we  quote  the  following :  — 

"  It  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Kimball,  an  emi- 
nent Physician  of  Lowell,  with  whom  the 
committee  had  an  interview,  that  there  is  less 


COMFOKT    AND    HEALTH.  ill 

sickness  among  the  persons  at  work  in  the 
mills  than  there  is  among  those  who  do  not 
work  in  the  mills ;  and  that  there  is  less  sick- 
ness now  than  there  was  several  years  ago, 
when  the  number  was  much  less  than  at  pre- 
sent. This  we  understood  to  be,  also,  the 
opinion  of  the  City  Physician,  Dr.  Wells."  — 
Page  11. 

In  relation  to  the  general  subject  here  under 
consideration,  the  experience  of  the  matrons 
of  the  boarding-houses  is  of  much  value.  Fre- 
quent cases  of  failure  of  health,  if  they  exist, 
must  of  course  be  known  by  them;  and  mea- 
sures have  accordingly  been  taken  to  arrive 
at  the  results  of  their  observation.  Answers 
to  questions  proposed  to  them  will  be  present- 
ed hereafter,  and  to  these  results,  uniform,  de- 
cided, and  entirely  consentaneous  with  the 
other  points  of  evidence,  bearing  on  this  sub- 
ject, the  reader  is  requested  to  turn. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  an  impression  is 


124  COMFORT    AND    HEALTH. 

sometimes  entertained,  among  those  who  are 
strangers  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  that  the 
health  of  many  girls  is  broken  down  by  long 
confinement  and  excessive  toil,  who,  finding 
their  strength  failing  in  Lowell,  return  to  their 
homes,  and  leave  no  memorials  here  of  their 
sickness  and  death.  Assertions  of  this  kind 
have  been  publicly  made,  not  always,  we  may 
fear,  in  a  spirit,  or  with  motives  most  favora- 
ble to  the  exact  truth.  That  there  is  sickness 
among  the  seven  thousand  factory  girls  of 
Lowell,  —  cases  of  prostration  of  strength,  and 
incapacity  to  bear  the  fatigues  of  confinement 
and  toil,  it  would,  of  course,  be  absurd  to  de- 
ny. Some  come  with  the  seeds  of  disease  al- 
ready growing  within*them,  and  they  find  that 
their  constitutions  would  soon  break  down  by 
continued  labor.  Others,  freed  from  the 
guardianship  of  parental  care,  are  greatly  im- 
prudent in  their  diet,  or  dress,  or  exposure  to 
cold  and  damp  air.  It  will  not  be  expected 


COMFORT  AND  HEALTH.       125 

but  that  others  still,  will  feel  that  devotion  to 
fashion  which  is  characteristic  of  the  sex,  and 
will  contract  a  serious,  perhaps  fatal  cold, 
through  a  neglect  to  provide  themselves  with 
a  warm  shawl,  or  a  pair  of  stout  shoes.  More- 
over, there  is  something  in  the  monotony  of  a 
mill-life  which  seems  to  beget  a  morbid  hank- 
ering for  little  artificial  stimulants  of  the 
appetite,  and  the  tone  of  the  stomach  is  fre- 
quently deranged  by  a  foolish  and  expensive 
patronage  of  the  confectioner.  Painful  in- 
stances, likewise,  have  occurred,  where  the 
hope  of  relieving  an  embarrassed  parent,  or 
of  helping  a  struggling  brother  through  college, 
excited  too  strongly  by  the  ability  of  earning 
fifteen  or  twenty  dollars  per  month,  has  over- 
tasked the  energies  of  an  ambitious  young 
woman,  and  she  has  sunk  beneath  her  self-im- 
posed burden.  To  all  these  cases  should  be 
added  a  too  frequent  attendance,  in  times  of 
religious  excitement  especially,  upon  evening 


126  COMFORT    AND    HEALTH. 


meetings,  at  the  churches  or  vestries,  to  which 
many  are  drawn,  partly  through  a  social  in- 
fluence, and  partly  through  a  devout  one  of 
the  most  commendable  kind.  After  the  work 
of  the  day,  the  close  air  of  the  conference  and 
lecture  room,  for  three  or  four  evenings  a 
week,  must  be  highly  prejudicial  to  health; 
and  it  is  well  that  there  is  an  increasing  con- 
viction of  the  importance  of  attention  to  this 
subject,  on  the  part  of  clergymen  and  others, 
who  have  the  direction  of  the  meetings  refer- 
red to. 

These  causes  of  ill  health  among  the  fac- 
tory operatives  in  Lowell  are  certainly  at 
work ;  and  it  is  notorious  that  they  produce 
much  the  larger  amount  of  sickness  which 
here  exists.  But  in  the  case  of  a  healthy, 
judicious,  and  prudent  young  woman,  it  would 
be  difficult  to  prove  that  there  is  any  thing  in 
the  work  which  she  here  does,  or  in  the  gen- 
eral life  which  she  here  leads,  which  is  more 


COMFORT    AND    HEALTH.  127 


unfavorable  to  health  than  the  employment 
which  is  given  to  thousands  of  females  in  our 
large  cities,  in  the  establishments  of  milliners, 
tailors,  bookbinders,  and  others,  where  females 
are  at  work.  A  walk  through  our  mills  must 
convince  one,  by  the  generally  healthy  and 
robust  appearance  of  the  girls,  that  their  con- 
dition is  not  inferior,  in  this  respect,  to  other 
working  classes  of  their  sex.  Certainly,  if 
multitudes  of  them  went  home  to  sicken  and 
die,  equal  multitudes  of  their  sisters  and  neigh- 
bors would  not  be  very  eager  to  take  the  fatal 
stations  which  were  deserted.  The  united 
testimony  of  these  girls  themselves,  of  the 
matrons  of  their  boarding-houses,  and  of  the 
physicians  of  the  city,  can  be  reconciled  with 
only  one  conclusion,  and  that  only  the  preju- 
diced and  designing  will  resist. 


128  MORAL    POLICE. 


MORAL  POLICE   OF  THE   CORPORATIONS. 

It  has  been  seen  what  a  large  amount  of 
capital  is  here  invested,  and  what  manifold 
and  extensive  operations  this  capital  sets  in 
motion.  The  productiveness  of  these  works 
depends  upon  one  primary  and  indispensable 
condition  —  the  existence  of  an  industrious, 
sober,  orderly,  and  moral  class  of  operatives. 
"Without  this,  the  mills  in  Lowell  would  be 
worthless.  Profits  would  be  absorbed  by  cases 
of  irregularity,  carelessness,  and  neglect ;  while 
the  existence  of  any  great  moral  exposure  in 
Lowell  would  cut  off  the  supply  of  help  from 
the  virtuous  homesteads  of  the  country.  Pub- 
lic morals  and  private  interests,  identical  in 
all  places,  are  here  seen  to  be  linked  together 
in  an  indissoluble  connection.  Accordingly, 
the  sagacity  of  self-interest,  as  well  as  more 
disinterested  considerations,  has  led  to  the 
adoption  of  a  strict  system  of  moral  police. 


MORAL    POLICE.  129 

Before  we  proceed  to  notice  the  details  of 
tliis  system,  there  is  one  consideration  bearing 
upon  lliu  character  of  our  operatives,  which 
must  all  the  while  be  borne  in  mind.  We 
,<>  permanent  factory  population.  This 
is  the  wide  gulf  which  separates  the  English 
manufacturing  towns  from  Lowell.  Only  a 
very  few  of  our  operatives  have  their  homes 
in  this  city.  The  most  of  them  come  from 
the  distant  interior  of  the  country,  as  will  be 
proved  by  statistical  facts  which  will  be  pre- 
sented in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

To  the  general  fact,  here  noticed,  should  be 
added  another,  of  scarcely  less  importance  to 
a  just  comprehension  of  this  subject,  —  the 
female  operatives  in  Lowell  do  not  work,  on 
an  average,  more  than  four  and  a  half  years 
in  the  factories.  They  then  return  to  their 
homes,  and  their  places  are  taken  by  their 
sisters,  or  by  other  female  friends  from  their 
neighborhood.  Returns  will  hereafter  be  given 


130  MORAL    POLICE. 


which  will  establish  the  fact  of  the  average 
above  named. 

Here,  then,  we  have  two  important  ele- 
ments of  difference  between  English  and 
American  operatives.  The  former  are  resi- 
dent operatives,  and  are  operatives  for  life, 
and  constitute  a  permanent,  dependent  factory 
caste.  The  latter  come  from  distant  homes, 
to  which  in  a  few  years  they  return,  to  be  the 
wives  of  the  farmers  and  mechanics  of  the 
country  towns  and  villages.  The  English 
visiter  to  Lowell,  when  he  finds  it  so  hard  to 
understand  why  American  operatives  are  so 
superior  to  those  of  Leeds  and  Manchester, 
will  do  well  to  remember  what  a  different 
class  of  females  we  have  here  to  begin  with  — 
girls  well  educated  in  virtuous  rural  homes ; 
nor  must  the  Lowell  manufacturer  forget,  that 
we  forfeit  the  distinction,  from  that  moment, 
when  we  cease  to  obtain  such  girls  as  the 
operatives  of  the  city. 


MORAL    POLICE.  131 

To  obtain  this  constant  importation  of  fe- 
male hands  from  the  country,  it  is  necessary 
to  secure  tin'  moral  protection  of  their  charac- 
ters while  tliey  are  resident  in  Lowell.  This, 
therefore,  is  the  chief  object  of  that  moral 
police  referred  to,  some  details  of  which  will 
now  be  given. 

It  should  be  stated,  in  the  outset,  that  no 
persons  are  employed  on  the  Corporations  who 
are  addicted  to  intemperance,  or  who  are 
known  to  be  guilty  of  any  immoralities  of 
conduct.  As  the  parent  of  all  other  vices, 
intemperance  is  most  carefully  excluded.  Ab- 
solute freedom  from  intoxicating  liquors  is 
understood,  throughout  the  city,  to  be  a  pre- 
requisite to  obtaining  employment  in  the  mills, 
and  any  person  known  to  be  addicted  to  their 
use  is  at  once  dismissed.  This  point  has  not 
received  the  attention,  from  writers  upon  the 
moral  condition  of  Lowell,  which  it  deserves  ; 
and  we  are  surprised  that  the  English  travel- 


132  MORAL    POLICE. 

ler  and  divine,  Dr.  Scoresby,  in  his  recent 
book  upon  Lowell,  has  given  no  more  notice 
to  this  subject.  A  more  strictly  and  univer- 
sally temperate  class  of  persons  cannot  be 
found,  than  the  nine  thousand  operatives  of 
this  city  ;  and  the  fact  is  as  well  known  to  all 
others  living  here,  as  it  is  of  some  honest 
pride  among  themselves.  In  relation  to  other 
immoralities,  it  may  be  stated,  that  the  suspi- 
cion of  criminal  conduct,  association  with  sus- 
pected persons,  and  general  and  habitual  light 
behavior  arid  conversation,  are  regarded  as 
sufficient  reasons  for  dismissions,  and  for  which 
delinquent  operatives  are  discharged. 

In  respect  to  discharged  operatives,  there  is 
a  system  observed,  of  such  an  effectual  and 
salutary  operation,  that  it  deserves  to  be  mi- 
nutely described. 

Any  person  wishing  to  leave  a  mill,  is  at 
liberty  to  do  so,  at  any  time,  after  giving  a 
fortnight's  notice.  The  operative  so  leaving, 


MORAL    roi.K   i.. 

if  of  good  character,  and  having  worked  a 
year,  is  entitled,  as  a  matter  of  right,  to  an 
honorable  discharge,  made  out  after  a  printed 
form,  with  which  every  counting-room  is  sup- 
plied. That  form  is  as  follows  : 

Mr.  or  Miss ,  has  been  employed 

by  the  Manufacturing  Company,  in  a 

Room,  —  years  —  months,  and  is  hon- 
orably discharged. 

,  Superintendent. 

LOWELL, 

This  discharge  is  a  letter  of  recommenda- 
tion to  any  other  mill  in  the  city,  and  not 
without  its  influence  in  procuring  employment 
in  any  other  mill  in  New  England.  A  record 
of  all  such  discharges  is  made  in  each  count- 
ing-room, in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose. 

So  much  for  honorable  discharges.  Those 
dishonorable  have  another  treatment.  The 


134  MORAL    POLICE. 


names  of  all  persons  dismissed  for  bad  con- 
duct, or  who  leave  the  mill  irregularly,  are 
also  entered  in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose, 
and  these  names  are  sent  to  all  the  counting- 
rooms  of  the  city,  and  are  .there  entered  on 
their  books.  Such  persons  obtain  no  more 
employment  throughout  the  city.  The  question 
tion  is  put  to  each  applicant,  "  Have  you 
worked  before  in  the  city,  and  if  so,  where  is 
your  discharge  ? "  If  no  discharge  be  pre- 
sented, an  inquiry  of  the  applicant's  name 
will  enable  the  superintendent  to  know  whether 
that  name  stands  on  his  book  of  dishonorable 
discharges,  and  he  is  thus  saved  from  taking 
in  a  corrupt  or  unworthy  hand.  This  system, 
which  has  been  in  operation  in  Lowell  from 
the  beginning,  is  of  great  and  important  effect 
in  driving  unworthy  persons  from  our  city, 
and  in  preserving  the  high  character  of  our 
operatives. 

A  record  book,  of  honorable  and  dishonora- 


MMKU.    POLICE.  1 ."..") 

ble  discharges,  kept  on  one  of  the  Corporations, 
and  running  through  the  years  1836,  1837, 
1888,  and  a  part  of  1839,  is  now  lying  before 
the  author;  a  few  quotations  from  which  will 
enable  the  reader  to  understand  still  better 
the  operation  of  the  above  system.  Opening 
it  at  random,  a  few  quotations  will  be  given, 
first  of  honorable  discharges,  transcribing,  for 
obvious  reasons,  only  the  Christian  name  of 
the  operative  ;  and  as  these  quotations  record 
the  length  of  time  in  which  the  operative  has 
worked,  the  reader  will  be  here  furnished 
with  some  incidental  and  exact  evidence  bear- 
ing upon  that  point. 

"18SS,  March  10.  Julia .  From  No.  5 

weaving  room  ;  worked  three  years ;  dis- 
charged to  go  home. 

March  1 2.  Hannah  .  From  No.  3, 

spinning  room;  worked  five  years  ;  discharged 
to  go  on  the  Boott. 

March  13.     Elizabeth .     From  No.  3, 


136  MORAL    POLICE. 

carding  room ;  worked  twelve  months ;  to  go 
home  ;  will  return  probably. 

March  13.  Acsah  .  From  No.  5, 

weaving  room ;  worked  three  years ;  to  go 
home. 

March  15.  Nancy  .  From  No.  2, 

weaving  room  ;  worked  twenty-seven  months ; 
to  go  home. 

March  16.  Eliza  .  From  No.  5, 

lower  weaving  room ;  worked  fourteen  months ; 
to  go  home. 

March  19.  Lucy  .  From  No.  1, 

weaving  room ;  worked  one  week ;  not  wanted ; 
to  go  on  the  Boott. 

March  19.  Lucy  .  From  No.  1, 

dressing  room ;  worked  nine  months ;  not 
wanted. 

March  20.  Otis .  From  repair  shop, 

blacksmith  ;  worked  twelve  months. 

March   21.     Almira  .     From  No.  5, 


MORAL    POLICE.  i:)7 


lower  weaving  room  ;  worked  three  years ;  to 
go  home. 

March  21.  Nathaniel .  From  No.  3, 

spinning  room ;  worked  three  months ;  dis- 
contented with  wages. 

March  21.  William  .  Worked  ten 

months  ;  cannot  stand  it. 

March  21.  Lucy  .  From  No.  1, 

spinning  room ;  worked  ten  months ;  not 
wanted. 

March  24.  Luretta  .  From  No.  4, 

spinning  room ;  worked  one  month. 

March  24.  Catharine .  No.  4,  cloth 

room  ;  worked  twenty- five  months ;  to  go 
home. 

March  26.  Elizabeth .  From  No.  1, 

spinning  room  ;  worked  twelve  months ;  to  go 
on  the  Tremont." 

The  above  is  the  unselected  and  connected 
record  of  one  page. 

From  the  record  of  dishonorable  discharges, 


138  MORAL    POLICE. 

a  connected  page,  opened  at  random,  will  be 
quoted,  only  with  the  same  omission  as  before. 
The  reader  will  notice  the  kind  of  offences 
recorded,  and,  from  the  dates,  will  be  able  to 
judge  how  frequently  such  cases  occur. 

"  1838,  Dec.  31.  Ann .  No.  4,  weav- 
ing room ;  discharged  for  altering  her  looms 
and  thinning  her  cloth. 

1839,  Jan.  2.  Lydia  .  No.  1,  spin- 
ning room;  obtained  an  honorable  discharge 
by  false  pretences.  Her  name  has  been  sent 
round  to  the  other  Corporations  as  a  thief  and 
a  liar. 

Jan.  3.  Harriet  and  Judith  . 

From  No.  4,  spinning  room,  and  No.  5,  weav- 
ing room ;  discharged  as  worthless  characters. 

Jan.  9.  Lydia  .  From  No.  2,  spin- 
ning room  ;  left  irregularly  ;  name  sent  round. 

Feb.  15.  Hadassah  .  From  No.  3, 

lower  weaving  room ;  discharged  for  improper 
conduct  —  stealing  from  Mrs. . 


o 


MORAL    POLICE.  139 

Mtirch  8.  Abby  .  No.  2,  spinning 

room  ;  discharged  for  improper  conduct. 

March  14.  Ann  ,  No.  2,  spinning 

room ;  discharged  for  reading  in  the  mill ; 
gave  her  a  line  stating  the  facts. 

March  26.  Harriet  ,  No.  4,  carding 

room ;  Laura  ,  No.  4,  spinning  room ; 

Ellen  ,  No.  1,  carding  room ;  George 

,  repair  shop  —  all  discharged  for  im- 
proper conduct. 

March  29.  Martha  ,  No.  2,  spinning 

room ;  Apphia  ,  No.  2,  spinning  room ; 

left  irregularly,  and  names  sent  round. 

April  3.  Emily .  No.  5,  carding  room  ; 

discharged  for  profanity,  and  sundry  other 
misdemeanors.  Name  sent  round." 

It  must  be  unnecessary  to  accompany  the 
above  quotations  with  any  comment.  The 
facts,  selected  with  as  much  impartiality  as  is 
possible,  speak  for  themselves.  We  have  here 
sixteen  honorable  discharges  given  in  sixteen 


140  MORAL    POLICE. 


days;  and  fourteen  dishonorable  discharges 
given  in  three  months  and  four  days,  and  of 
the  offences  specified,  five  of  them  indicate 
no  deep  moral  delinquency.  The  care  with 
which  these  records  are  kept  is  creditable  to 
the  officers  of  the  Corporation,  as  the  results 
of  the  records  are  honorable  to  the  characters 
of  their  operatives. 

Any  description  of  the  moral  care,  studied 
by  the  Corporations,  would  be  defective  if  it 
omitted  a  reference  to  the  overseers.  Every 
room  in  every  mill  has  its  first  and  second 
overseer.  The  former,  or,  in  his  absence,  the 
latter,  has  the  entire  care  of  the  room,  taking 
in  such  operatives  as  he  wants  for  the  work  of 
the  room,  assigning  to  them  their  employment, 
superintending  each  process,  directing  the  re- 
pairs of  disordered  machinery,  giving  answers 
to  questions  of  advice,  and  granting  permis- 
sions of  absence.  At  his  small  desk,  near  the 
door,  where  he  can  see  all  who  go  out  or 


MOKAL    n.l.ICE.  141 


come  in,  the  overseer  may  generally  be  found ; 
and  he  is  held  responsible  for  the  good  order, 
propriety  of  conduct,  and  attention  to  business, 
of  the  operatives  of  that  room.  Hence,  this 
is  a  post  of  much  importance,  and  the  good 
management  of  the  mill  is  almost  wholly  de- 
pendent upon  the  character  of  its  overseers. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  peculiar  care  is  exer- 
cised in  their  appointment.  Raw  hands,  and 
of  unknown  characters,  are  never  placed  in 
this  office.  It  is  attained  only  by  those  who 
have  either  served  a  regular  apprenticeship  as 
machinists  in  the  Repair  Shop,  or  have  be- 
come well  known  and  well  tried,  as  third 
hands,  and  assistant  overseers.  It  is  a  post  for 
which  there  are  always  many  applicants,  the 
pay  being  two  dollars  a  day,  with  a  good 
house,  owned  by  the  company,  and  rented  at 
the  reduced  charge  before  noticed.  The  over- 
seers are  almost  universally  married  men, 
with  families ;  and  as  a  body,  numbering 


142  MORAL    POLICE. 


about  one  hundred  and  eighty,  in  all,  are 
among  the  most  permanent  residents,  and 
most  trustworthy  and  valuable  citizens  of  the 
place.  A  large  number  of  them  are  mem- 
bers of  our  churches,  and  are  often  chosen  as 
council  men  in  the  city  government,  and  rep- 
resentatives in  the  State  legislature.  The 
guiding  and  salutary  influence  which  they  exert 
over  the  operatives,  is  one  of  the  most  essen- 
tial parts  of  the  moral  machinery  of  the  mills. 
As  closely  connected  with  the  foregoing 
statements,  the  following  note  from  a  superin- 
tendent may  be  here  republished,  which  was 
sent  in  reply  to  questions  proposed  to  him  in 
the  Spring  of  1841:  — 

"DEAR  SIR:  — 

I  employ  in  our  mills,  and  in  the  various 
departments  connected  with  them,  thirty  over- 
seers, and  as  many  second  overseers.  My 
overseers  are  married  men,  with  families,  with 


MORAL    POLK   !  .  143 

a  single  exception,  and  even  he  has  engaged 
a  tenement,  and  is  to  be  married  soon.  Our 
second  overseers  are  younger  men,  but  up- 
wards of  twenty  of  them  are  married,  and 
several  others  are  soon  to  be  married.  Six- 
teen of  our  overseers  are  members  of  some 
regular  church,  and  four  of  them  are  deacons. 
Ten  of  our  second  overseers  are  also  members 
of  the  church,  and  one  of  them  is  the  super- 
intendent of  a  Sunday  School.  I  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  in  all  the  sterling 
requisites  of  character,  in  native  intelligence, 
and  practical  good  sense,  in  sound  morality, 
and  as  active,  useful,  and  exemplary  citizens, 
they  may,  as  a  class,  safely  challenge  compar- 
ison with  any  class  in  our  community.  I 
know  not,  among  them  all,  an  intemperate 
man,  nor,  at  this  time,  even  what  is  called  a 
moderate  drinker. 

Yours  truly, 
Lowell,  May  10,  1841." 


144  MOEAL    POLICE. 


Still  another  source  of  trust  which  a  Corpo- 
ration has,  for  the  good  character  of  its  opera- 
tives, is  the  moral  control  which  they  have 
over  one  another.  Of  course  this  control 
would  be  nothing  among  a  generally  corrupt 
and  degraded  class.  But  among  virtuous  and 
high-minded  young  women,  who  feel  that  they 
have  the  keeping  of  their  characters,  and  that 
any  stain  upon  their  associates  brings  reproach 
upon  themselves,  the  power  of  opinion  be- 
comes an  ever-present,  and  ever-active  re- 
straint. A  girl,  suspected  of  immoralities,  or 
serious  improprieties  of  conduct,  at  once  loses 
caste.  Her  fellow-boarders  will  at  once  leave 
the  house,  if  the  keeper  does  not  dismiss  the 
offender.  In  self-protection,  therefore,  the 
matron  is  obliged  to  put  the  offender  away. 
Nor  will  her  former  companions  walk  with, 
or  work  with  her ;  till  at  length,  finding  herself 
everywhere  talked  about,  and  pointed  at,  and 
shunned,  she  is  obliged  to  relieve  her  fellow- 


MORAL   POLICE.  145 


operatives  of  a  presence  which  they  feel 
brings  disgrace.  From  this  power  of  opinion, 
there  is  no  appeal ;  and  as  long  as  it  is  exerted 
in  favor  of  propriety  of  behavior  and  purity 
of  life,  it  is  one  of  the  most  active  and  effect- 
ual safeguards  of  character. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  present  here 
the  regulations,  which  are  observed  alike  on 
all  the  Corporations,  which  are  given  to  the 
operatives  when  they  are  first  employed,  and 
are  posted  up  conspicuously  in  all  the  mills. 
They  are  as  follows :  — 

"  Regulations  to  be  observed  by  all  persons  employed  by  the 

Manufacturing  Company,  in  the  Factories. 

Every  overseer  is  required  to  be  punctual  himself, 
and  to  see  that  those  employed  under  him  are  so. 

The  overseers  may,  at  their  discretion,  grant  leave 
of  absence  to  those  employed  under  them,  when  there 
are  sufficient  spare  hands  in  the  room  to  supply  their 
place ;  but  when  there  are  not  sufficient  spare  hands, 
they  are  not  allowed  to  grant  leave  of  absence  unless 
-  of  absolute  necessity. 

All  persons  are  required  to  observe  the  regulations 
of  the  room  in  which  they  are  employed.  They  are 
not  allowed  to  be  absent  from  their  work  without  the 
consent  of  their  overseer,  except  in  case  of  sickness, 
and  then  they  are  required  to  send  him  word  of  the 
cause  of  their  absence. 


146         BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 


All  persons  are  required  to  board  in  one  of  the 
boarding  houses  belonging  to  the  company,  and  con- 
form to  the  regulations  of  the  house  in  which  they 
board. 

All  persons  are  required  to  be  constant  in  attendance 
on  public  worship,  at  one  of  the  regular  places  of 
worship  in  this  place. 

Persons  who  do  not  comply  with  the  above  regula- 
tions will  not  be  employed  by  the  company. 

Persons  entering  the  employment  of  the  company, 
are  considered  as  engaging  to  work  one  year. 

All  persons  intending  to  leave  the  employment  of 
the  company,  are  required  to  give  notice  of  the  same 
to  their  overseer,  at  least  two  weeks  previous  to  the 
time  of  leaving. 

Any  one  who  shall- take  from  the  mills,  or  the  yard, 
any  yarn,  cloth,  or  other  article  belonging  to  the  com- 
pany, will  be  considered  guilty  of  STEALING  —  and 
prosecuted  accordingly. 

The  above  regulations  are  considered  part  of  the 
contract  with  all  persons  entering  the  employment  of 

the  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY.  All  persons 

who  shall  have  complied  with  them,  on  leaving  the  em- 
ployment of  the  company,  shall  be  entitled  to  an  hon- 
orable discharge,  which  will  serve  as  a  recommendation 
to  any  of  the  factories  in  Lowell.  No  one  who  shall 
not  have  complied  with  them  will  be  entitled  to  such 
a  discharge,  ,  Agent." 


BOAEDING-HOUSE  STATISTICS. 

It  has  been  before  stated  that  in  many  cases 
the  keepers  of  the  boarding-houses  retain  their 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          147 


places  for  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  years.  Stand- 
ing in  the  place  of  parents  to  their  girls,  their 
future  welfare  is  a  matter  of  deep  interest  to 
these  matrons,  and  frequently  they  have  some 
knowledge  of  the  after-fortunes  of  their  board- 
er-, through  sisters  and  neighbors,  who  have 
succeeded  them  in  the  mills.  It,  hence,  ap- 
peared probable,  that  by  extensive  and  careful 
inquiries  of  the  matrons,  important  facts  might 
be  collected  in  respect  to  the  health  and  char- 
acter of  their  girls,  while  boarders,  and  of 
their  honorable  standing  in  life,  after  they  had 
retired  from  Lowell.  For  this  purpose  a 
series  of  questions  was  prepared,  copies  of 
which  were  handed  to  three  or  four  matrons 
on  each  Corporation,  and  twenty-one  of  their 
written  replies  have  been  returned  to  the  au- 
thor, and  will  here  be  subjoined.  There  was 
no  selection  of  houses  from  which  to  seek  re- 
turns, and  there  is  no  selection  of  returns  so 
as  to  present  only  favorable  cases.  The  in- 


148  BOADING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 

quiries  were  made  under  the  direction  of  the 
author,  and  partly  by  himself  personally ;  and 
with  the  single  exception  of  a  preference  for 
those  matrons  who  had  kept  a  boarding-house 
for  several  years,  as  returns  from  inexperi- 
enced persons  would  here  be  of  no  value,  the 
results  below  presented  are  as  fair  and  impar- 
tial as  can  be  procured. 

The  questions  were  as  follows :  — 

1.  How  long  have  you  kept  a  boarding- 
house  on  this  Corporation  ? 

2.  How  many  boarders  have  you  now  ? 

3.  How  many  boarders  have  you  had  in  all 
since  you  kept  the  house  ? 

4.  How  many  of  your  girls  have,  to  your 
knowledge,  been  married  ? 

5.  How  many  have  died  ? 

6.  How  many  have  gone  home  sick  ? 

7.  How  many  of  your  boarders  have  been 
dismissed  from  the  Corporation  for  bad  con- 
duct? 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.         149 

8.  Have  you  ever  had  much   sickness  in 
your  house  ? 

9.  How   many  cases  do  you  think,  which 
have  lasted  a  week,  and  have  had  the  care  of 
a  physician  ? 

The  replies  will  be  copied  exactly  as  they 
were  returned. 

CASE  1.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Appleton  four  and  a  half  years;  have 
now  nineteen  boarders ;  have  had  probably,  in 
all,  a  hundred  and  fifty ;  knows  of  ten  of  these 
that  have  been  married ;  not  one  of  her  girls, 
while  a  boarder,  has  died ;  three  have  gone 
home  sick ;  none  of  her  boarders  have  been 
dismissed  for  bad  conduct ;  have  had  but  little 
sickness  ;  perhaps  eight  cases  that  have  lasted 
a  week,  and  had  the  care  of  a  physician. 

CASE  2. —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Hamilton  nineteen  years ;  have  now  six- 
is* 


150          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 


teen  boarders  ;  have  had  twenty-five,  upon  an 
average,  all  the  time  ;  know  of  over  two  hun- 
dred of  my  girls  that  have  been  married, 
having  kept  an  account  of  them  till  within 
two  years  past ;  only  one  of  my  boarders  has 
died  in  my  house ;  fifteen  have  gone  home 
sick ;  one  of  my  boarders  has  been  dismissed 
from  the  Corporation  for  bad  conduct ;  never 
have  had  much  sickness;  perhaps  ten  cases 
corresponding  to  the  description  in  Ques- 
tion 9. 

CASE  3.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Lowell  Corporation  eleven  years ;  have 
now  twenty-five  boarders  ;  have  had,  perhaps, 
two  hundred  in  all ;  know  of  as  many  as  fifty 
of  them  that  have  been  married  ;  not  one  has 
died  in  my  house ;  none  have  ever  been  sent 
home  sick ;  one  of  my  boarders  was  turned 
off  from  the  Corporation  for  bad  conduct; 
have  had  very  little  sickness  in  my  house; 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          151 

can  remember  but  eleven  cases  that  have 
lasted  a  week  and  been  attended  by  a  physi- 
cian. 

CASE  4.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Merrimack  for  twelve  years;  have  now 
sixteen  boarders;  presume  I  have  had  four 
hundred  in  all ;  can  remember  eighty  of  these 
that  have  been  married ;  none  have  died  at 
my  house  ;  have  heard  of  the  death  of  eleven ; 
three  have  gone  home  sick;  none  dismissed 
from  my  house  for  bad  conduct ;  have  had  but 
little  sickness  in  my  house,  perhaps  ten  or 
twelve  cases  that  have  lasted  a  week. 

CASE  5.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Appleton,  eight  years  and  seven  months ; 
have  now  sixteen  boarders;  cannot  tell  how 
many  I  have  had  in  all,  perhaps  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five;  know  of  forty-five  of  my 
girls  that  have  been  married ;  eight  have  died ; 


152          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 

twelve  have  gone  home  sick  ;  none  have  been 
dismissed  from  my  house  for  bad  conduct ; 
have  had  much  sickness  in  my  house,  should 
think  as  many  as  twenty  cases  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  6.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Hamilton  for  nineteen  years ;  have  now 
nineteen  boarders;  probably  have  had  three 
hundred  in  all ;  can  recollect  only  nineteen  of 
my  girls  that  have  been  married ;  two  have 
died  from  my -house  ;  twelve  have  gone  home 
sick ;  three  have  been  dismissed  for  bad  con- 
duct ;  never  have  had  much  sickness  ;  can 
remember  fourteen  cases  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  7. — Have  been  matron  on  the  Merri- 
mack  nine  years ;  have  now  sixteen  boarders  ; 
have  had  two  hundred  and  fifteen  since  I  kept 
the  house ;  know  of  sixty  of  my  girls  who 
have  been  married ;  three  have  died  in  my 
house,  and  have  heard  of  the  death  of  six 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          153 

others ;  seven  have  gone  home  sick ;  none 
have  been  dismissed  from  my  house  for  bad 
conduct ;  never  have  had  much  sickness,  not 
more  than  seven  or  eight  cases  lasting  a 
week. 

CASE  8.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Appleton,  four  years  and  six  months ; 
have  now  seventeen  boarders ;  have  had  a 
hundred  and  forty-five  in  all ;  know  of  four- 
teen who  have  been  married ;  none  have  died 
from  my  house ;  two  have  gone  home  sick ; 
three  have  been  dismissed  from  the  Corpora- 
tion ;  have  had  no  sickness  in  my  house ;  not 
a  case  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  9.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Lawrence  nine  and  a  half  years;  have 
twenty-eight  boarders  now;  have  had  four 
hundred  and  fifty  or  five  hundred  in  all; 
should  judge  that  as  many  as  a  hundred  and 


154          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 

twenty-five  of  these  had  been  married;  there 
has  been  no  death  in  this  tenement,  but  have 
heard  of  the  death  of  twenty-five  who  left 
this  tenement  in  good  health ;  three  have  gone 
home  sick ;  nine  have  been  dismissed  from  my 
house  for  bad  conduct ;  never  have  had  much 
sickness,  no  one  considered  as  dangerously  ill ; 
only  three  that  have  had  the  care  of  a  physi- 
cian; most  sickness  has  been  occasioned  by 
measles 

CASE  10.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Boott  for  nine  years ;  have  thirty-four 
boarders  now ;  have  had  as  many  as  five  hun- 
dred in  all;  probably  a  fifth  of  these  have 
been  married  ;  there  has  been  no  death  in  my 
house  ;  three  have  gone  home  sick,  and  one  of 
these  died  in  a  few  months  after ;  two  have 
been  dismissed  for  bad  conduct :  never  have 
had  much  sickness,  and  it  is  three  years  since 
a  physician  has  been  in  the  house ;  perhaps 


BOAKi)iN<;-norsi:  STATISTICS.        155 

have  had,  in  the  nine  years,  twelve  cases  last- 
ing a  week. 

CASE  11.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Lawrence  seven  years  ;  have  now  twenty- 
seven  boarders ;  have  had  in  all  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five ;  twenty-seven  of  my  girls 
have  been  married ;  two  have  died ;  eight 
gone  home  sick;  three  dismissed  from  the 
house;  have  never  had  much  sickness;  a 
dozen  cases  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  12.  —  Have  kept  a  boarding-house  on 
the  Suffolk  and  Lawrence  ten  years ;  have 
had  an  average  of  sixteen  girls ;  two  hundred 
in  all ;  fifty  married,  including  every  one  of 
my  first  set  of  girls ;  three  turned  out  of  my 
house ;  four  only  that  laid  on  a  bed  of  sick- 
ness in  my  house ;  no  death  in  my  house,  and 
but  one  who  went  home  sick,  to  die,  and  she 
was  consumptive  before  she  came  here ;  never 


156          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 


have  heard  of  any  other  of  my  girls   who 
have  died. 

CASE  13.  —  Kept  house  on  Suffolk  fourteen 
years ;  have  now  nineteen  boarders ;  have 
had  a  hundred  and  fifty-seven  in  all ;  know  of 
eight  who  are  married ;  three  have  died,  but 
not  one  in  my  house ;  three  gone  home  sick ; 
three  dismissed  for  bad  conduct ;  never  have 
had  much  sickness ;  perhaps  five  cases,  lasting 
a  week. 

CASE  14. — Kept  house  on  Tremont  three 
years  and  seven  months ;  twenty-seven  girls 
now ;  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  in  all ; 
know  of  none  of  them  who  have  been  mar- 
ried ;  none  of  them  have  died ;  ten  have  gone 
home  sick ;  three  have  been  dismissed  from 
my  house  ;  have  had  considerable  sickness, 
nine  or  ten  cases,  lasting  a  week. 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          157 

CASE  15.  —  Kept  a  boarding-house  on  Tre- 
mont  eight  years  and  eight  months ;  eighteen 
boarders  now ;  cannot  precisely  say  how  many 
I  have  had  in  all;  know  of  forty-three  who 
have  been  married ;  none  have  died ;  none 
have  gone  home  sick ;  three  dismissed  from 
the  house ;  not  much  sickness ;  seven  cases, 
lasting  a  week. 

CASE  16. —  Kept  house  on  Lawrence  ten 
years  ;  twenty-seven  boarders  now  ;  five  hun- 
dred in  all ;  one  married  at  the  house,  about 
fifty  married  in  all ;  none  have  died ;  ten 
gone  home  sick ;  two  dismissed  for  bad  con- 
duct ;  very  little  sickness  ;  think  of  only  five 
who  have  had  the  care  of  a  physician. 

CASE  17. —  Kept  house  on  Merrimack  six 
years  ;  twenty -eight  boarders  now ;  two  hun- 
dred in  all ;  seventy-five  have  been  married, 
having  kept  account ;  two  have  died ;  four 

14 


158          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 


gone  home  sick;  three  dismissed  for  bad  con- 
duct ;  very  little  sickness ;  four  or  five  cases, 
lasting  a  week. 

CASE  18.  —  Kept  house  on  Lowell  Cor- 
poration nine  years ;  twenty-five  boarders 
now ;  perhaps  five  hundred  in  all ;  know  of 
but  twelve  who  have  been  married ;  three 
have  died ;  one  gone  home  sick ;  none  dis- 
missed for  bad  conduct ;  very  little  sickness ; 
seven  cases  needing  a  physician. 

CASE  19.  —  Kept  house  on  Appleton  five 
years ;  twenty  boarders  now ;  one  hundred 
and  thirty  in  all ;  fifteen  have  been  married ; 
none  have  died ;  three  gone  home  sick ;  not 
one  dismissed  for  bad  conduct;  not  a  great 
deal  of  sickness ;  ten  cases  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  20.  —  Kept  house  on  Suffolk  six 
years ;  twenty-nine  boarders  now ;  two  hun- 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          159 


dred  and  twenty-nine  in  all ;  thirty-nine  have 
been  married  ;  five  died,  all  went  home  before 
they  died ;  six  have  gone  home  sick ;  three 
dismissed  for  bad  conduct ;  have  had  consid- 
erable sickness ;  twelve  cases,  lasting  a  week. 

CASE  21.  —  Kept  house  on  Lowell  Corpor- 
ation sixteen  years  ;  twenty-six  boarders  now ; 
five  or  six  hundred  in  all ;  can  count  up  a 
hundred  and  seven  who  have  been  married ; 
two  have  died  in  my  house ;  three  have  gone 
home  sick ;  one  turned  out  of  my  house  for 
bad  conduct ;  have  had  considerable  sickness  ; 
twenty  cases  corresponding  to  description  in 
question  nine. 

In  respect  to  the  foregoing  statistics,  it  must 
doubtless  be  remembered,  that  some  of  the 
numbers  mentioned  are  mere  guesses;  some 
are  the  result  of  imperfect  recollection  ;  while 
some  may  have  been  unintentionally,  but  yet 
naturally,  affected  by  a  desire,  on  the  part  of 


160          BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS. 

the  matron,  to  speak  well  of  her  house.  And 
yet  it  is  confidently  believed  that  these  are  as 
deliberate  and  carefully  formed  estimates  as 
could  be  made.  Whatever  uncertainty  at- 
taches to  them  belongs  almost  entirely  to  the 
larger  numbers  given,  which,  in  the  above  re- 
turns, are  of  the  least  importance.  In  respect 
to  the  smaller  numbers,  those  of  cases  of  sick- 
ness, and  bad  conduct  especially,  the  chances 
of  error  were  fewer,  and  the  information  was 
more  precise  and  certain.  It  should  be  added, 
moreover,  that  several  of  these  matrons  are 
personally  known  to  the  author  as  women  of 
bright  minds,  generally  exact  information,  and 
who  are  remarkable  for  the  interest  they  feel 
in  the  girls  who  have  boarded  in  their  houses. 
Their  returns  may  be  confidently  received  as 
exact. 

But,  after  making  all  reasonable  abate- 
ments, it  is  not  easy  to  resist  the  conclusion, 
that  female  factory  operatives  generally  enjoy 


BOARDING-HOUSE    STATISTICS.          161 


at  lra-t  a  (air  average  of  health,  and  possess, 
for  the  most  part,  reputable  characters,  and 
encounter  no  very  great  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  a  marriage  settlement  in  life.  The  above 
twenty-one  cases  report  six  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  eighty-six  factory  girls.  Their 
:iv<Tii«ro  stay  in  Lowell  has  been  about  four 
and  a  half  years.  One  hundred  and  sixteen 
of  them  have  been  reported  as  sick  over  a 
week  and  had  the  care  of  a  physician.  Forty- 
six  of  them  have  been  guilty  of  bad  conduct, 
for  which  they  have  been  dismissed  from  the 
boarding  houses.  It  is  known  that  forty-nine 
have  died,  either  in  their  boarding  houses  or 
probably  soon  after  leaving  them.  It  is  known 
here,  that  one  thousand  one  hundred  and 
thirty-six  of  them  have  been  married.  We 
must  leave  these  results  to  make  such  an  im- 
pression on  the  reader  as  he  shall  deem  to  be 
reasonable  and  probably  true. 


162  MILL    STATISTICS. 


MILL  STATISTICS. 

The  overseers  of  the  mills  constitute  the 
most  permanent  part  of  the  population  of  the 
city.  Some  of  them  have  retained  their 
office  for  twenty  years,  that  is,  ever  since  fac- 
tories were  first  established  in  this  place ;  a 
large  number  of  them  have  filled  their  present 
stations  for  ten  and  twelve  years.  Botlj  from 
their  general  intelligence,  and  from  their  pecu- 
liar opportunities  of  investigation,  the  expe- 
rience and  observation  of  these  men  must 
possess  great  value;  accordingly,  measures 
have  been  taken  to  obtain  the  results  of  their 
knowledge.  A  series  of  questions  has  been 
sent  to  each  superintendent  of  the  Corpora- 
tions, accompanied  by  the  following  request : 
"  Will  you  select  some  faithful  and  long  em- 
ployed overseer  on  your  Corporation,  who 
may  go  through  some  one  of  your  mills,  and, 


MILL    STATISTICS.  163 

after  personal  inquiries  of  every  girl,  make 
me  a  return  to  the  enclosed  questions  ?  " 

The  questions  were  as  follows : 

Name  of  the  Corporation  ? 

Name  of  the  overseer  ? 

How  long  has  he  been  employed  ? 

Name  of  the  mill  selected  ? 

Number  of  girls  in  that  mill  ? 

How  many  natives  of  Massachusetts  ? 

How  many  natives  of  Maine  ? 

How  many  natives  of  New  Hampshire  ? 

How  many  natives  of  Vermont  ? 

How  many  natives  of  Canada  ? 

How  many  natives  of  Ireland  ? 

How  many  have  worked  less  than  a  year  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  one  and 
two  years  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  two  and 
three  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  three  and 
four? 


164  MILL    STATISTICS. 


How  many  have  worked  between  four  and 
five? 

How  many  have  worked  between  five  and 
six? 

How  many  have  worked  between  six  and 
seven  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  seven  and 
eight  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  eight  and 
nine  ? 

How  many  have  worked  between  nine  and 
ten? 

How  many  are  connected  with  a  Sunday 
school,  either  as  pupil  or  teacher  ? 

How  many  are  church  members  ? 

How  many  have  kept  school  ? 

How  many  say  that  they  enjoy  better  health 
than  before  working  in  the  mill  ? 

How  many  as  good  health  ? 

How  many  not  so  good  ? 


MILL    STATISTICS.  165 


To  the  overseer  above  named : 

How  many  girls  are  there  usually  in  your 
employ  ? 

Since  you  have  been  employed  on  your 
Corporation,  have  all  persons  in  your  room, 
known  to  be  guilty  of  licentious  conduct,  either 
been  dismissed,  or  at  once  left  the  Corporation? 

How  many  have  been  discharged  from  your 
room  for  this  cause  ? 

This  proposition  met  with  the  ready  co-ope- 
ration of  the  superintendents,  and  eight  replies, 
presenting  the  statistics  of  as  many  different 
mills,  have  been  received.  The  results  are 
here  copied,  and  will  be  given  in  a  form  simi- 
lar to  that  adopted  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

CASE  1.  —  Appleton  Corporation.  Mill, 
No.  2.  John  Tripp,  overseer.  Has  been  em- 
ployed fourteen  years ;  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
one  girls  in  that  mill ;  thirty-six  natives  of 
Massachusetts ;  fifty-nine  of  Maine ;  fifty- 


166  MILL    STATISTICS. 

seven  of  New  Hampshire;  eighteen  of  Ver- 
mont ;  two  of  New  York ;  four  of  Canada ; 
fifteen  of  Ireland;  eighty-six  have  worked 
less  than  one  year ;  sixteen  between  one  and 
two  years ;  eighteen  between  two  and  three 
years ;  thirteen  between  three  and  four  years ; 
fourteen  between  four  and  five  years ;  thir- 
teen between  five  and  six  years ;  five  between 
six  and  seven  years  ;  four  between  seven  and 
eight  years ;  eight  between  eight  and  nine 
years ;  five  between  nine  and  ten  years ;  five 
between  ten  and  eleven  years;  one  between 
thirteen  and  fourteen  years;  three  between 
fourteen  and  fifteen  years ;  seventy-four  are 
connected  with  a  Sunday  school ;  fifty-one  are 
church  members ;  six  have  kept  school ;  ten 
say  they  have  enjoyed  better  health  since 
they  worked  in  a  mill;  ninety-four  as  good 
health ;  eighty-one  not  so  good.  From  thirty 
to  forty  girls  have  usually  been  employed  in 
Mr.  Tripp's  room.  All  persons  known  to  be 


MILL    STATISTICS.  167 

guilty  of  licentious  conduct  have  been  dis- 
missed or  have  left  the  Corporation,  and  two 
have  been  dismissed  from  his  room  for  that 
cause. 

CASE  2.  —  Boott  Corporation.  Daniel 
Balch,  overseer.  Has  been  employed  three 
and  a  half  years  in  that  room,  but  fifteen  years 
in  all.  Inquiries  made  in  No.  1  mill.  One 
hundred  and  eighty-six  girls  employed  in  that 
mill.  Twenty-nine  natives  of  Massachusutts ; 
thirty-seven  of  Maine ;  fifty-four  of  New- 
Hampshire  ;  twenty -five  of  Vermont ;  nine 
of  Canada ;  twenty-two  of  Ireland ;  ten  of 
other  states.  Forty-two  have  worked  less  than 
one  year ;  fifteen  between  one  and  two  ;  twen- 
ty between  two  and  three  ;  twenty-three  be- 
tween three  and  four;  sixteen  between  four 
and  five  ;  twelve  between  five  and  six  ;  eleven 
between  six  and  seven;  ten  between  seven 
and  eight ;  four  between  eight  and  nine ;  four- 


168  MILL    STATISTICS. 


teen  between  nine  and  ten  ;  nineteen  between 
ten  and  twenty.  Sixty-four  are  connected  with 
a  Sunday  school;  sixty-seven  are  church 
members ;  seventeen  have  kept  school. 
Twenty-four  say  that  they  enjoy  better  health 
than  before  ;  one  hundred  and  eighteen  as 
good  health ;  thirty-two  not  so  good.  Sixty- 
six  girls  are  usually  employed  in  Mr.  Balch's 
room.  All  persons  known  to  be  guilty  of 
licentious  conduct  have  been  dismissed,  or 
have  at  once  left  the  Corporation ;  and,  in  look- 
ing back  five  years,  Mr.  Balch  finds  two  in- 
stances of  such  persons  dismissed  from  his 


CASE  3. — Hamilton  Corporation.  Inquiries 
made  in  No.  1  Mill.  Overseer,  Elbridge  G. 
Eichardson.  Has  been  employed  fifteen  years. 
One  hundred  and  ninety-five  girls  in  that 
mill.  Thirty-two  natives  of  Massachusetts ; 
fifty-seven  of  Maine;  seventy-one  of  New- 


MILL    STATISTICS.  169 


Hampshire;  seventeen  of  Vermont;  three  of 
Canada;  eleven  of  Ireland.  Twenty-three 
have  worked  less  than  one  year ;  twenty-nine 
between  one  and  two  years ;  twenty  between 
two  and  three ;  twenty-one  between  three  and 
four;  twenty-seven  between  four  and  five; 
twenty-four  between  five  and  six;  five  be- 
tween six  and  seven ;  eleven  between  seven 
and  eight;  eleven  between  eight  and  nine; 
twenty  between  nine  and  ten.  Seventy-seven 
are  connected  with  Sunday  schools ;  sixty- 
nine  are  church  members ;  thirteen  have  kept 
school.  Nineteen  say  that  they  enjoy  better 
health  than  before  working  in  the  mill ; 
eighty-two  as  good  health ;  ninety-five  not  so 
good.  Twenty-eight  girls  are  usually  employ- 
ed in  Mr.  Richardson's  room.  All  persons 
known  to  have  been  guilty  of  licentious  con- 
duct have  at  once  been  dismissed,  and  none 
have  been  turned  away  from  his  room  for  that 
cause. 


170  MILL    STATISTICS. 

CASE  4.  —  Suffolk  Corporation.  Inquiries 
made  by  Oliver  W.  Flint.  He  has  been  em- 
ployed thirteen  years  as  overseer  of  a  weaving- 
room.  One  hundred  and  fifty-six  girls  were 
interrogated.  Sixteen  natives  of  Massachu- 
setts ;  thirty-five  of  Maine ;  fifty-three  of 
New-Hampshire;  twenty-nine  of  Vermont; 
six  of  Canada;  fourteen  of  Ireland;  one 
of  New- York;  two  of  England.  Ffty-two 
have  worked  less  than  one  year ;  twenty-nine 
between  one  and  two  years ;  sixteen  between 
two  and  three ;  thirteen  between  three  and 
four ;  ten  between  four  and  five  ;  thirteen  be- 
tween five  and  six;  seven  between  six  and 
seven ;  four  between  seven  and  eight ;  two 
between  eight  and  nine  ;  ten  between  nine  and 
ten.  Seventy-two  are  connected  with  Sunday 
schools  ;  fifty-one  are  church  members  ;  thir- 
teen have  kept  school ;  and  one  of  these  has 
kept  school  for  twelve  years.  Seventeen  say 
that  they  have  enjoyed  better  health  than  be- 


MILL    STATISTICS.  171 


fore  working  in  the  mill ;  ninety -two  as  good 
health ;  forty-seven  not  so  good.  There  are 
usually  employed  in  Mr.  Flint's  room  eighty 
girls.  All  persons  known  to  have  been  guilty 
of  licentious  conduct  have  at  once  been  dis- 
missed, and  three  have  been  turned  away  from 
his  room  for  that  cause. 

CASE  5.  —  Massachusetts  Corporation.  In- 
quiries made  in  Mill  No.  2,  by  Hannibal 
Powers,  overseer  of  card-room,  who  has  been 
employed  one  year  and  a  half;  by  George  H. 
Jones,  overseer  of  spinning-room,  who  has 
been  employed  five  years  ;  by  C.  Goodspeed, 
overseer  of  the  dressing-room;  by  J.  W. 
Gale,  overseer  of  the  lower  weaving-room, 
who  has  been  employed  three  and  a  half  years ; 
and  by  D.  D.  Crombie,  overseer  of  the  upper 
weaving-room,  who  has  been  employed  four 
years.  One  hundred  and  ninety-nine  girls 
were  interrogated.  Eighteen  were  natives  of 


172  MILL    STATISTICS. 


Massachusetts ;  thirty-nine  of  Maine ;  seven- 
ty-one of  New-Hampshire;  thirty-eight  of 
Vermont ;  five  of  Canada ;  twenty  of  Ireland. 
Fifty-one  have  worked  less  than  one  year; 
thirty-six  between  one  and  two  years ;  seven- 
teen between  two  and  three ;  nineteen  between 
three  and  four ;  sixteen  between  four  and  five ; 
seventeen  between  five  and  six ;  sixteen 
between  six  and  seven;  twelve  between 
seven  and  eight ;  two  between  eight  and  nine ; 
seven  between  nine  and  ten ;  one  has  worked 
thirteen  years.  Ninety-three  are  connected 
with  a  Sunday  school ;  forty-nine  are  church 
members ;  nineteen  have  kept  school.  Nine- 
teen say  that  they  enjoy  better  health  than 
before  working  in  the  mill ;  ninety-eight  as 
good  health ;  seventy-eight  not  so  good.  There 
are  usually  employed  by  the  above  overseers 
one  hundred  and  seventy  eight  girls.  All 
persons  known  to  have  been  guilty  of  licen- 
tious conduct  have  been  dismissed,  and  six  are 


MILL    STATISTICS.  173 


reported  as  having  been  turned  away  for  this 
cause.  One  of  the  overseers  appends  to  his 
return  the  following  note :  —  "  About  ten  per- 
sons have  been  dismissed  from  my  room,  whose 
general  reputation  was  bad,  but  of  whom  I 
could  not  satisfy  myself  that  they  were  actu- 
ally licentious,  but  they  were  indiscreet,  and 
disregarded  the  advice  of  their  overseer." 

CASE  6.  —  Tremont  Corporation.  Inqui- 
ries made  by  I.  Deming,  who  has  been  over- 
seer on  the  Tremont  for  six  years,  and  in  dif- 
ferent mills  for  thirteen  years.  He  interroga- 
ted one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  girls. 
Eighteen  were  natives  of  Massachusetts; 
thirty-seven  of  Maine ;  fifty-eight  of  New 
Hampshire;  twenty-seven  of  Vermont;  ten 
of  Canada ;  twenty-four  of  Ireland ;  two  of 
Khode  Island;  one  of  New  York.  Thirty- 
eight  have  been  employed  less  than  one  year ; 
twenty-nine  between  one  and  two  years ;  fif- 

15* 


174  MILL    STATISTICS. 

teen  between  two  and  three ;  twenty-four  be- 
tween three  and  four ;  twelve  between  four  and 
five ;  nineteen  between  five  and  six ;  seven  be- 
tween six  and  seven ;  eight  between  seven  and 
eight ;  eight  between  eight  and  nine;  eight  be- 
tween nine  and  ten;  three  eleven  years ;  two 
twelve  years ;  two  thirteen  years ;  one  fourteen 
years ;  one  eighteen  years.  Eighty-three  are 
connected  with  a  Sunday  school;  eighty-six 
are  church  members ;  thirteen  have  kept  school. 
Seventeen  say  that  they  enjoy  better  health 
than  before  working  in  the  mill ;  eighty-seven 
as  good  health ;  thirty-three  not  so  good.  It 
has  been  the  rule  that  all  persons  known  to  be 
guilty  of  licentious  conduct  shall  be  dismissed 
from  the  Corporation.  Have  had  no  positive 
evidence  of  any  such  conduct.  Four  persons 
have  been  sent  away  for  being  out  late  at  night. 

CASE  7.  —  The  replies  to  the  above  queries 
in  relation  to  one  mill  on  the  Lawrence  Cor- 


MILL    STATISTICS.  175 


poration,  have  been  brought  together  in  the 
following  letter  from  the  Agent  of  that  Cor- 
poration, which  is  here  given  entire  :  — 

LOWELL,  May  13,  1845. 
REV.  HENRY  A.  MILES. 

DEAR  SIR: —  I  rejoice  to  learn  that  you  are 

preparing  a  "  little  book/'  to  show  "  Lowell  as 
it  was,  and  as  it  is,"  and  with  great  pleasure 
take  upon  myself  the  labor  of  collecting 
the  facts  you  want  in  relation  to  the  mills  un- 
der my  charge. 

It  is  proper  here  to  remark,  that  the  Law- 
rence Manufacturing  Company  have  four 
mills  now  in  operation,  and  contemplate,  in  a 
few  weeks,  to  start  a  new  one,  equal  in  size  to 
two  of  the  old.  In  each  one  of  these  four 
mills  about  one  hundred  and  eighty  female 
operatives  are  now  employed. 

I  proceed  to  answer  your  inquiries : 
Question  1.     How  many  of  your  female 
operatives  board  off  from  the  Corporation  ? 


176  MILL    STATISTICS. 

Answer.  One  hundred  and  thirteen,  near- 
ly all  of  whom  board  with  their  parents. 

Q.  2.  How  many  boarding-houses  have 
you  for  females  ? 

A.     Twenty-nine. 

Q.  3.     How  many  overseers  ? 

A.  Twenty-eight  first  overseers,  and  twen- 
ty second  overseers. 

Q.  4.  What  is  the  average  pay  of  an 
overseer  ? 

A.  First  overseers  receive  two  dollars, 
and  second  overseers  one  dollar  and  twenty- 
five  cents  per  day. 

Q.  5.  What  is  the  average  pay  of  male 
operatives  ? 

A.  Our  machinists  receive,  as  an  average, 
one  dollar  and  thirty-five  cents  per  day; 
watchmen,  yard  hands,  and  cloth-room  hands, 
about  ninety-two  cents ;  and  the  young  men 
in  the  mills  about  eighty  cents  as  an  aver- 
age. 


MILL    STATISTICS.  177 


Q.  6.  What  the  average  pay  of  female 
operatives  ?  t 

A.  The  females  employed  in  our  No.  1 
Mill  received,  for  the  month  ending  on  the 
second  Saturday  of  May  instant,  an  average 
of  fifty-three  and  one-tenth  cents  per  day, 
which  is  equal  to  one  dollar  ninety-three  and 
six-tenth  cents  per  week,  after  paying  board ; 
and  I  presume  this  was  very  nearly  the  aver- 
age in  all  our  mills. 

Q.  7.  How  many  operatives  have  you 
under  fifteen  years  of  age  ? 

A.    Ten  in  all  the  mills. 

Q.  8.  How  many  applications  for  work 
do  you  think  that  you  reject  per  year  ? 

A.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  answer,  as 
no  register  of  applications  is  kept.  From 
October  till  May  very  many  young  men  apply 
for  employment.  Some  almost  every  day. 
During  the  residue  of  the  year,  calls  are  less 
frequent,  though  numerous.  In  the  cool  sea- 


178  MILL    STATISTICS. 


son,  female  help  is  also  most  abundant.  For 
several  years  pa^  the  supply  has  exceeded 
the  demand  from  October  till  May ;  the  de- 
mand has  exceeded  the  supply  during  the 
months  of  July,  August,  and  September,  and  for 
the  rest  of  the  year  they  have  been  about  equal. 

During  the  past  week,  the  overseers  of  our 
No.  1  Mill,  to  wit :  Mr.  Daniel  Knapp,  who 
has  been  twelve  years  overseer ;  Mr.  William 
Roby,  who  has  been  sixteen  years  overseer ; 
Mr.  James  French,  who  has  been  two  years 
overseer,  but  who  has  worked  in  a  mill  twelve 
years ;  Mr.  Isaac  Cooper,  who  has  been  over- 
seer ten  years  ;  and  Mr.  Franklin  W.  Burn- 
ham,  who  has  been  overseer  five  years^  but 
has  worked  in  a  cotton  mill  twelve  years ;  col- 
lected by  a  personal  inquiry  of  the  girls,  in 
their  respective  rooms,  the  facts  appearing  in 
the  following  tables,  to  wit : 

Whole  number  of  girls  then  employed  in 
said  mill,  one  hundred  and  eighty-three. 


MILL    STATISTICS.  179 

Of  these  21  are  natives  of  Massachusetts, 

45  "  "  "  Maine, 

55  "  "  "  New  Hampshire, 

52  "  "  "  Vermont, 

3  "  "  "  Canada, 

6  "  "  "  Ireland, 

1  is  a  "  "  Scotland. 

183 

Of  the  same  persons  44  have  worked  less  than  1  year. 
26  from   1  to    2  years, 
26      "       2   "     3      « 
18      "       3    "     4      " 
25      "       4   "     5      " 
6      "       5   "     6      " 
13      "       6   "      7      " 

4  "       7   "     8      " 
8     "       8   "     9      " 
8      "       9   "    10      " 

5  more  than  10      " 

183 

Of  the  same  persons,  are  connected  with  S.  Schools,  98 

Church  members,  74 

Have  kept  school,  16 

26  of  them  report  their  health  as  better  than  before 

they  worked  in  the  mills, 
113  report  then-  health  as  equally  good, 
42      "        "          "       "  not  so  good, 
2  were  absent  at  the  time,  and  not  interrogated. 

183 
O C 


180  MILL    STATISTICS. 

The  number  of  females  usually  employed 
in  said  mill  is  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
two. 

To  the  question,  "  Since  you  have  been  em- 
ployed by  said  Corporation,  have  all  persons 
known  to  be  guilty  of  licentious  conduct,  either 
been  discharged,  or  at  once  left  the  Corpora- 
tion?" every  one  of  said  overseers  returns 
"  an  affirmative  answer? 

And  six  are  reported  as  the  whole  num- 
ber known  to  said  overseers,  as  ever  hav- 
ing been  discharged  from  their  mill  for  this 
cause. 

As  to  those  discharged  from  other  mills, 
they  say  they  cannot  answer,  not  knowing  the 
facts.  I  think  it  not  improbable  that  an  equal 
number  may  have,  for  like  reasons,  been  dis- 
charged from  each  of  the  other  mills  in  the 
course  of  the  ten  past  years,  though  I  cannot 
call  to  remembrance  half  that  number. 

The  original  reports  of  the  overseers  I  pre- 


MILL    STATISTICS.  181 

servo,  and  hold  subject  to  the  inspection  of 
any  one  who  may  have  an  interest  in  seeing 
them.  I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Yours,  &c. 

JOHN  AIKEN, 

Agent  Lawrence  Manufacturing  Co. 

CASE  8.  —  The  following  letter  covers  the 
replies  from  one  mill,  on  the  Merrimack  Cor- 
poration, and  is  here  given  entire : 

LOWELL,  JUNE  13,  1845. 
REV.  H.  A.  MILES. 

DEAR  SIR:  —  Your  inquiries  respecting 
the  operatives  on  the  Merrimack  Corporation 
should  have  received  an  earlier  answer,  but 
for  other  pressing  engagements.  I  now  pro- 
ceed to  reply  to  your  questions  in  their  order. 

1.  We  employ  in  our  five  mills,  when  full, 
about  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  females ;  but, 
as  we  are  generally  short  of  help  in  the  sum- 
mer, we  do  not  average  perhaps  over  twelve 

16 


182  MILL    STATISTICS. 


hundred.  Of  these,  as  near  as  I  can  ascer- 
tain, seventy-five  to  eighty  board  off  the  Cor- 
poration, mostly  with  their  parents.  This 
number  includes  the  Irish,  who  almost  inva- 
riably board  in  their  own  families. 

2.  We  have  a  hundred  and  fifty-five  tene- 
ments belonging  to  the    company,  which,  at 
present,  are  appropriated  as  follows,  viz :  forty- 
seven  boarding-houses  for  females  exclusively; 
these  include  all  our  large  tenements :  eight 
boarding-houses  for  men  exclusively  ;  and  one 
hundred  are  occupied,  as  private,  by  our  over- 
seers, mechanics,  and  others,  employed  by  the 
company. 

3.  We  have  twenty-five  first,  and  as  many 
second,  overseers  in  the  mills,  beside  the  over- 
seers of  our  machine-shop,  of  the  yard,  and 
of  the   cloth-room  —  twenty-eight   in    all,  of 
each  class. 

4.  The   usual  pay  of  an  overseer  is  two 
dollars  per  day ;   but   overseers   occasionally 


MILL    STATISTICS.  183 


receive  a  somewhat  higher  sum,  either  from 
their  long  experience,  or  from  unusual  labor 
and  responsibility  being  devolved  upon  them. 
Occasionally,  though  not  uniformly,  additional 
pay  is  given  in  the  form  of  premiums,  or 
presents,  to  the  more  meritorious,  according  to 
their  presumed  degrees  of  merit.  These  pre- 
miums have  varied  in  different  years  from  two 
hundred  to  five  hundred  dollars  in  each  mill ; 
and  sometimes  have  been  omitted  altogether. 

5.  The  average  pay  of  our  male  operatives, 
at  the  present  time,  would  not  probably  vary 
much  from  eighty-five  cents  per  day,  clear  of 
board. 

6.  The  average  pay  of  females,  on  regular 
work,  would  probably  fall  a  little  below  two 
dollars  per  week,  clear  of  board ;  but  if  we 
include  their  earnings  on  extra  work,  it  would 
considerably  exceed  that  sum. 

7.  It  would  be  difficult  to  answer  this  ques- 
tion with  even  an  approximation  to  accuracy. 


184  MILL    STATISTICS. 

i 

With  regard  to  men,  probably  not  one  in  forty 
applicants  is  engaged.  I  speak  of  common 
laborers,  not  of  mechanics.  In  regard  to 
females,  the  case  is  different,  and  varies  with  | 
the  season  of  the  year.  From  November  1st 
to  May  1st,  perhaps  twenty-five  to  thirty- three 
and  a  third  per  cent,  of  those  applying  are 
rejected.  From  May  1st  to  November  1st, 
very  few  are  rejected,  if  of  suitable  age  and 
good  appearance.  During  these  months  ex- 
perienced hands  are  always  in  demand. 

8.  See  results  obtained  by  our  overseers  on 
next  page. 

9.  Our  rule  is,  to  employ  no  child  under 
fifteen  years  of  age.     I  require  all  such  appli- 
tions  to  be  referred  to  me,  and  I  reject  all, 
except  the   circumstances  seem  to  demand  a 
departure  from  the  rule :  for  instance,  where 
the  mother  works  in  the  mill,  or  the  sisters, 
the  parents  being  dead.     I  may  have,  on  an 
average,  three  or  four  such  cases  in  all. 


MILL    STATISTICS.  185 

I  submitted  your  other  inquiries  to  the  five 
overseers  in  one  of  my  mills,  and  I  now  con- 
dense the  answers  obtained  from  them,  into 
one  view.  The  originals,  over  their  own  sig- 
natures, are  at  your  service. 

The  mill  selected  is  our  No.  3  mill.  The 
names  of  the  overseers  are  as  follows,  viz. 

Jesse  Phelps,  who  has  been  Overseer  over  19  years. 
John  W.  Holland,        "  "       17    " 

George  Wellman,         "  "       11     " 

James  Townsend;        "  "       11     " 

James  C.  Crombie,       "  "         1     " 

Number  of  girls  employed  usually  in  the 
mill,  two  hundred  and  forty. 

Natives  of  New  Hampshire, 90 

Vermont, 61 

"          Maine,  •  • 58 

Massachusetts, 19 

"          Canada, 8 

u          Ireland, 4 

240 


186  MILL    STATISTICS. 


Have  worked  under  one  year 40 

Over  one  but  under  two  years, 23 

"    two         "        three  "      37 

"    three       "        four    "      32 

"    four        Ci        five     "      22 

"five         "        six      '•      22 

"    six          "        seven "      20 

"    seven      "        eight  "      6 

"    eight       "        nine    "      8 

"    nine        "        ten     "      4 

From  ten  to  twenty-one  years 26 

^40 

In  answer  to  the  inquiry  respecting  their 
health,  twenty-two  answer  that  their  health 
has  been  better,  since  working  in  the  mills, 
than  before ;  one  hundred  and  forty-three,  that 
it  has  been  as  good,  or  about  the  same ;  and 
seventy-five,  that  their  health  has  not  been  as 
good  as  formerly ;  though  many  attribute  their 
loss  of  health  to  other  causes  than  working  in 
the  mills. 

One  hundred  and  twenty-eight  of  the  two 
hundred  and  forty,  are  connected  with  Sab- 
bath schools,  some  few  as  teachers. 


MILL    STATISTICS.  187 

One  hundred  and  three  are  members  of 
some  Christian  church. 

Thirty-one  have  been  heretofore  engaged  in 
teaching  school. 

In  answer  to  your  inquiries  respecting  the 
prevalence  of  licentiousness,  I  give  you  their 
answers  separately. 

Mr.  Phelps,  who  commenced  at  Waltham, 
and  1ms  been  with  us  nearly  twenty  years,  and 
is,  I  believe,  the  oldest  overseer  in  Lowell, 
says  : 

"  It  has  been  the  uniform  rule  of  the  com- 
pany to  discharge  every  person,  male  or  fe- 
male, known  to  be  guilty  of  licentious  con- 
duct. The  facts  are  usually  discovered  and 
made  known  by  the  other  girls  working  in  the 
same  room,  or  boarding  in  the  same  house ; 
and,  if  the  guilty 'parties  were  not  at  once  dis- 
charged, their  companions  would  in  most,  if 
not  all  cases,  themselves  leave.  I  should 
judge  that  the  whole  number  discharged  from 


188  MILL    STATISTICS. 

the  Merrimack  Company,  during  my  connec- 
tion with  it  as  an  overseer,  which  has  been 
betwixt  nineteen  and  twenty  years,  has  not 
exceeded  two  or  three  each  year,  and  that 
such  cases  have  been  more  rare  of  late  years 
than  formerly.  I  do  not  recollect  ever  having 
discharged  but  three  for  licentious  conduct 
during  the  whole  time  I  have  been  in  the 
manufacturing  business. 

Mr.  Holland,  who  has  been  an  overseer  far 
our  company  seventeen  years,  says : 

"  Since  I  have  been  employed  by  the  Mer- 
rimack Company,  all  persons  known  to  be 
guilty  of  licentious  conduct,  have  either  been 
dismissed  or  have  at  once  left  the  Corporation. 
But  three  persons  have  been  discharged  from 
my  room,  out  of  eighty-four  usually  em- 
ployed, during  the  whole  time,  and  I  have  no 
knowledge  of  but  six  cases  upon  the  Corpora- 
tion." 
.  Mr.  Wellman,  who  has  been  overseer  of  a 


MILL    STATISTICS.  189 

card  room  eleven  years,  and  has  usually  had 
about  t  \venty  girls  under  his  care,  says : 

u  Xo  licentious  or  immoral  person  would  be 
allow*  .  to  work  in  the  room;  but  I  do  not 
recollect  a  single  instance  in  which  a  girl  has 
been  dismissed  from  my  room  from  this  cause. 
I  luivv  sometime  suspected  girls,  and  in  such 
have  contrived  to  get  rid  of  them  as 
quietly  as  possible.  The  whole  number  dis- 
charged from  the  Corporation  for  this  cause  I 
cannot  state  very  precisely  —  perhaps  twelve 
or  fifteen  during  the  last  eleven  years.  I 
should  think  such  cases  less  frequent  now  than 
when  I  first  came  to  Lowell,  eleven  years 
ago." 

Mr.  Townsend,  who  has  also  been  with  us 
about  eleven  years,  says  : 

"  All  persons  known  to  be  guilty  of  licen- 
tious conduct,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  extends, 
have  been  immediately  dismissed  from  the 
Com]  i.ny's  employ,  or  have  left  the  Corpora- 


190  MILL    STATISTICS. 

tion.  None  have  been  discharged  from  my 
room  from,  this  cause." 

Mr.  Crombie  says : 

"  I  have  never  known  any  person  retained 
in  the  employ  of  the  company,  when  known 
to  be  guilty  of  licentious  conduct.  I  have 
been  employed  as  overseer  only  one  year,  but 
was  assistant  overseer  nearly  six  years.  Since 
I  have  been  overseer  no  one  in  my  room  has 
been  discharged,  or  suspected  of  licentious 
conduct.  While  I  was  second  overseer,  there 
were  three  girls  discharged  from  the  room 
where  I  worked  for  this  cause ;  no  one  .  of 
them,  however,  had  worked  in  the  room  over 
a  week  before  her  character  became  known  or 
suspected,  and  she  was  at  once  discharged. 
Such  cases  are  very  uncommon,  however ; 
and  since  I  have  worked  in  the  yard,  I  do  not 
think  I  have  heard  of  one  case  a  year,  uoon 
an  average." 

These  are  all  the  answers  I  have  obtained 


MILL    STATIS1  i  191 


in  relation  to  your  inquiries ;  and  I  believe 
they  embrace  substantially  the  information 
you  wished.  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  furnish 
you  any  other  facts  in  my  possession,  which 
you  may  think  would  be  useful  to  you. 
Very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  CLARK. 

Sup.  Merrimack  Mamtf.  Com. 

In  the  two  foregoing  letters  the  reader  will 
perceive  that  there  are  replies  to  other  ques- 
tions beside  those  given  at  the  beginning  of 
this  chapter.  They  relate,  principally,  to  the 
average  pay  of  operatives,  to  the  number  that 
do  not  board  on  the  Corporation,  and  to  the 
number  under  fifteen  years  of  age.  On  all 
the  Corporations  the  wages  are  nearly  uni- 
form, so  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  present  more 
than  one  or  two  statements  bearing  upon  that 
point.  Tiio  other  two  topics  are  of  considera- 


192  MILL    STATISTICS. 

ble  importance,  and  answers  relating  to  these, 
from  other  superintendents,  will  here  be  sub- 
joined. Referring  above  to  what  Mr.  Aiken, 
and  Mr.  Clark  write  in  reply  to  question  No. 
1,  we  will  add  that  the  superintendent  of  the 
Appleton  Corporation  reports  sixty-two  ope- 
ratives as  not  boarding  in  that  company's 
houses ;  the  superintendent  of  the  Boott  re- 
ports one  hundred  and  seventy-seven ;  from 
the  Suffolk  the  answer  is  one  hundred  and 
three ;  from  the  Tremont,  thirty-eight.  These 
officers  have  added  the  remark,  that  operatives 
who  do  not  board  on  the  Corporation,  in  al- 
most every.,  case,  live  with  their  parents,  or 
brothers,  or  sisters,  or  other  near  connexion. 
Of  operatives  under  fifteen  years  of  age,  there 
are  reported  ten  from  the  Lawrence,  five  from 
the  Merrimack,  one  from  the  Appleton,  none 
from  the  Boott,  eight  from  the  Suffolk,  and 
three  from  the  Tremont.  These  are  all  cotton 
mills.  In  the  Print  Works  and  Carpet  Mill 


0-- 

MILL    STATISTICS.  .          193 

a  somewhat  larger  proportion  of  children  are 
employed.  In  respect  to  all  operatives  under 
fifteen  years  of  age,  the  law  of  Massachusetts, 
requiring  that  such  shall  attend  school  for  the 
space  of  three  months  every  year,  is  rigidly 
enforced. 

One  other  remark  will  conclude  this  chap- 
ter. We  have  now  given  returns  from  eight 
mills  in  the  city.  There  is  no  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  returns  from  all  the  mills  would 
lead  to  essentially  different  results.  Assuming 
that  the  proportions  established  by  these  eight 
may  be  safely  applied  to  all  the  rest,  we  ar- 
rive at  the  following  conclusions,  which  the 
reader  will  be  able  to  verify  for  himself. 

Of  the  six  thousand  three  hundred  and 
twenty  female  operatives  in  Lowell,  Massa- 
chusetts furnishes  one-eighth ;  Maine,  one- 
fourth  ;  New  Hampshire,  one-third ;  Vermont, 
one-fifth  ;  Ireland,  one-fourteenth ;  all  other 
places,  principally  Canada,  one-seventeenth. 


194  ADVANTAGES. 

Of  all  these  operatives,  more  than  three- 
sevenths  are  connected  with  some  Sunday 
school,  either  as  teachers  or  pupils,  this  being 
two  thousand  seven  hundred  and  fourteen  in 
all.  About  three-eighths  of  them  are  church 
members,  this  being  two  thousand  two  hundred 
and  seventy-six  in  all.  Five  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  have  been  teachers  in  common 
schools.  The  average  time  during  which  these 
female  operatives  work  in  the  mills  is  between 
four  and  five  years.  A  large  majority  of 
them  report  their  health  as  being  either  better 
than,  or  as  good  as,  it  was  before  entering  the 
mill. 


MORAL  AND  INTELLECTUAL  ADVANTAGES. 

A  brief  reference  to  some  of  the  privileges 
which  the  operatives  and  citizens  of  Lowell 
enjoy,  will  complete  the  circle  of  topics  con- 


ADVANTAGES.  195 


templated  in  this  work.  We  will  first  allude 
to  those  which  are  within  the  reach  of  the 
former.  Opportunities  of  reading  are  afforded 
them,  during  the  evenings,  and  Sundays,  and 
occasional  absence  from  the  mills.  Parish, 
city,  and  circulating  libraries  are  resorted  to 
for  books ;  and  great  numbers  of  the  factory 
girls  are  subscribers  to  newspapers,  magazines, 
and  reviews.  Among  a  class  containing,  as 
we  have  seen,  five  hundred  school  teachers,  it 
will  not  be  thought  strange  that  many  should 
employ  their  leisure  hours  in  attempts  to  ad- 
vance their  education.  Quite  a  large  number 
attend  evening  schools  in  the  winter ;  and  it 
has  been  ascertained  that  on  one  Corporation 
alone,  there  were  two  hundred  and  ninety  girls 
who  employed  a  part  of  the  evenings  of  one 
winter  in  this  manner.  Instances  are  not  un- 
common of  female  operatives  forming  them- 
selves into  classes,  to  take  lessons  in  the  study 
of  some  foreign  language.  Others  will  club 


196  ADVANTAGES. 

together  to  hire  a  piano,  and  employ  the  ser- 
vices of  a  teacher  of  music;  and  the  notes  of 
that  instrument  are  often  heard  proceeding 
from  the  boarding-houses.  Beside  these,  there 
are  formed  what  are  called  "  Improvement  Cir- 
cles," which  meet  once  a  fortnight,  or  once  a 
month,  to  hear  and  criticise  anonymous  com- 
positions furnished  by  the  members.  It  was 
in  a  circle  of  this  description  that  the  Lowell 
Offering  had  its  origin.  Of  courses  of  public 
lectures,  and  attendance  at  churches,  we  shall 
speak  in  another  place.  All  these  things  ex- 
ert a  beneficent  influence  in  educating  young 
women  who  resort  to  this  city  for  employment ; 
and  it  is  known  that  many  come  here,  less 
through  any  necessity  of  their  circumstances, 
than  from  a  desire  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
advantages  which  are  here  enjoyed. 


ADVANTAGES.  197 


CHURCHES. 

There  are  in  Lowell  twenty-three  regularly 
constituted  religious  societies,  viz :  one  Epis- 
copal, four  Congregational  Orthodox,  one 
Congregational  Unitarian,  three  Baptist,  three 
Universalist,  two  Episcopal  Methodists,  two 
Wesleyan  Methodists,  two  Roman  Catholics, 
two.  Freewill  Baptists,  two  Christians,  one 
Free  Chapel,  connected  with  the  Ministry  at 
large.  These  societies  have  erected  nineteen 
churches  at  a  cost  of  three  hundred  and  eight 
thousand  dollars ;  and  two  new  churches  have 
been  commenced  this  season.  They  are  serv- 
ed at  the  present  time  by  twenty-two  ministers, 
whose  support,  with  other  expenses  of  public 
worship,  amounts  to  twenty-five  thousand  dol- 
lars per  year.  Connected  with  these  societies, 
there  are  six  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  Sunday  school  pupils  and  teachers,  con- 

17* 


198  CHURCHES. 


stituting  more  than  a  fifth  part  of  the  entire 
population  of  the  citj.  Though  all  these 
societies  are  composed  altogether  of  working 
people,  and  many  of  them  almost  exclusively 
of  factory  operatives,  yet  their  charities  are 
many  in  number,  and  are  considerable  in  their 
aggregate  amount.  Contributions  of  four  hun- 
dred dollars  have  repeatedly  been  taken  up, 
in  a  single  church,  -for  missionary  purposes. 
One  of  these  societies  raised,  the  last  year, 
one  thousand  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  a 
pastor's  library.  Another  has  established, 
within  a  few  years,  a  parish  library  of  two 
thousand  three  hundred  volumes,  of  perma- 
nently valuable  books,  and  has  recently  under- 
taken the  support  of  a  Ministry  at  large, 
pledging  itself  for  this  purpose  to  the  amount 
of  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year.  It  has  been 
ascertained  that  the  charities  of  the  religious 
societies  of  this  city,  during  the  past  year,  be- 
side what  was  raised  for  their  ordinary  ex- 


CHURCHES.  199 


penses,  amounted  to  ten  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-six  dollars. 

A  better  feature  still  of  the  Lowell  churches 
is  that  higher  kind  of  charity,  which  the 
Apostle  has  placed  above  the  bestowing  even 
of  all  one's  goods  to  feed  the  poor.  Few  are 
the  places  which,  on  the  whole,  are  more  exempt 
from  bigotry,  intolerance,  and  the  little  arts  of 
persecution  and  censoriousness,  so  often  sug- 
gested by  sectarian  zeal.  The  clergymen  of  the 
city  often  meet  together,  to  consult  and  act  in 
concert,  to  promote  some  moral  end ;  and  such 
meetings  have  encouraged  generous  feelings  be- 
tween the  professors  of  different  forms  of  faith. 
The  factory  girl,  who  comes  to  Lowell,  finds  a 
church  professing  the  creed  in  which  she  has 
been  educated ;  and  many  become  interested  in 
their  Sunday  school,  and  attached  to  their  pas- 
tor, and  have  occasion  to  remember  this  city 
with  gratitude,  as  the  birthplace  of  that  higher 
life  to  which  they  have  here  been  awakened. 


200  SCHOOLS. 


SCHOOLS. 

The  public  schools  of  Lowell  are  divided  in- 
to three  grades,  consisting  of  one  High  School, 
eight  Grammar  Schools,  and  thirty  Primary 
Schools.  In  the  building  of  school-houses, 
the  city  has  already  expended  rising  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  Houses  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  the  Primary  and  Grammar 
Schools  are  placed  in  various  parts  of  the 
city,  the  edifices  for  the  latter  being  spacious, 
two  story,  brick  buildings.  The  High  School 
is  centrally  situated  on  Anne,  and  Kirk  streets, 
and  is  one  of  -the  best  buildings  of  the  kind  in 
the  country.  It  was  erected  in  1840,  at  a  cost 
of  about  nineteen  thousand  dollars.  Six  instruc- 
tors are  employed  in  this  school ;  the  average 
number  of  pupils  is  two  hundred.  There  are 
about  fifteen  hundred  scholars  in  the  Grammar 
Schools,  and  two  thousand  in  the  Primary. 


MILL    STATISTICS.  201 

The  present  appropriation  for  the  support  of 
these  schools  is  twenty-four  thousand  dollars. 
This  city  stands  among  the  first  in  the  cities 
and  towns  oi'  this  commonwealth  in  the  amount 
appropriated  for  public  instruction,  and  the 
well  established,  and  universally  acknow- 
ledged excellence  of  our  schools,  is  an  advan- 
tage which  often  brings  families  to  Lowell. 


CITY  LIBRARY. 

Last  year  a  public  library  was  established 
in  Lowell,  at  an  expenditure  of  three  thousand 
five  hundred  dollars,  the  larger  part  of  which 
was  an  appropriation  from  the  City  Council 
for  this  purpose.  A  large  room  has  been 
fitted  up  in  the  City  Hall,  a  librarian  has  been 
appointed,  and  a  catalogue  of  about  five 
thousand  volumes  has  been  printed.  The 
library  is  under  the  care  of  a  board  of  direc- 


202  LOWELL    OFFERING. 

tors,  chosen  by  the  City  Council,  and  is  open 
to  all  residents  in  Lowell,  by  the  payment 
merely  of  fifty  cents  a  year. 


LOWELL  OFFERING. 

The  origin  of  this  periodical  has  already 
been  named.  The  variety  and  merit  of  arti- 
cles, written  by  females  employed  in  the  mills, 
and  read  in  an  "  Improvement  Circle,"  formed 
in  the  early  part  of  1840,  suggested  the  pub- 
lication above  named.  The  first  number  ap- 
peared in  October  of  that  year,  and  succeeding 
numbers  followed  at  irregular  intervals.  In 
April,  1841,  a  new^  series  was  commenced ; 
and,  not  long  after,  two  female  factory  opera- 
tives became  the  publishers  and  editors  of  the 
work,  which  now  appeared  every  month.  The 
offering  was  received  with  much  favor,  and  no 
little  surprise.  The  leading  newspapers  and 


SAVINGS   BANK.  203 

reviews  gave  it  complimentary  notices ;  and 
many  copies  of  it  have  been  sent  to  England, 
where,  during  the  past  year,  a  volume  has 
been  published  of  selections  from  this  periodi- 
cal, under  the  significant  title  of  "  Mind  among 
the  Spindles."  The  extensive  reputation 
which  the  Offering  has  gained,  has  been  almost 
inexplicable  to  the  people  of  Lowell,  who  so 
well  know  that  there  is  mind  among  the  spin- 
dles. The  fact  has  only  revealed  the  great 
extent  of  the  misapprehensions  abroad,  of  the 
true  character  of  the  Lowell  female  opera- 
tives. These  misapprehensions  the  Offering 
has  served  to  correct,  and,  in  this  respect,  its 
short  life,  as  the  publication  is  soon  to  be  dis- 
continued, has  not  been  in  vain. 


SAVINGS   BANK. 

This  institution  was  incorporated  in  1829, 
since  which  it  has  received  two  millions  one 


204  SAVINGS    BANK. 


hundred  and  three  thousand  five  hundred  dol- 
lars, and  has  paid  out  one  million  four  hundred 
twenty-three  thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  Of 
the  two  thousand  depositors  in  this  bank,  about 
one  half  are  factory  girls ;  the  amount  of  whose 
funds,  now  on  interest,  is  estimated  at  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  is  not  an  unusual 
thing  for  one  of  these  girls  to  have  five  hundred 
dollars  on  deposit.  Two  per  cent,  in  interest 
is  paid  for  every  six  months,  which,  if  not 
withdrawn  in  three  months,  is  added  to  the 
principal,  thus  compounding  interest  twice  a 
year.  At  the  end  of  every  five  years  all  ex- 
tra income  is  divided,  and  the  interest  on  long 
deposits  has  generally  amounted  to  seven  per 
cent.  Probably  no  institution  of  this  kind  in 
the  country  has  been  more  faithfully  and  suc- 
cessfully managed. 


LOWELL    INSTITUTE.  205 


LOWELL  INSTITUTE. 

This  is  an  association  of  gentlemen  of  this 
city,  which  has  for  its  object  the  management 
of  a  course  of  lectures,  delivered  every  win- 
ter. About  twelve  hundred  tickets  are  sold, 
at  the  low  price  of  seventy-five  cents  each. 
With  the  proceeds  a  band  of  music  is  hired 
to  play  every  lecture  evening,  and  the  most 
distinguished  lecturers  are  engaged,  at  the  rate 
of  fifteen  dollars  per  lecture.  The  City  Hall 
is  commonly  crowded  full.  Many  of  the  fe- 
male operatives  attend,  and  the  opportunity  is 
justly  prized  by  them  of  deriving  more  enter- 
tainment and  instruction  than  most  of  them 
could  receive  at  home.  It  is  not  unusual  for 
other  courses  of  lectures  to  be  given  in  Lowell 
during  the  evenings  of  winter. 


206  MINISTRY    AT    LARGE. 


MINISTRY   AT  LARGE. 

In  the  summer  of  1844,  the  South  Congre- 
gational Society  established  a  ministry  at 
large,  on  the  plan  of  that  founded  by  Dr. 
Tuckerman  in  Boston.  Its  object  is  to  minis- 
ter to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  wants  of  all 
those  not  reached  by  any  of  the  existing  reli- 
gious societies.  Regular  services  are  held 
every  Sunday  in  the  Hamilton  Chapel,  on 
Middlesex  Street,  which  are  free  to  all  "  with- 
out money  and  without  price,"  and  here,  like- 
wise, a  Sunday  school  has  been  gathered,  of 
about  one  hundred  children.  A  faithful  and 
judicious  pastor  has  the  charge  of  this  charity, 
who  devotes  the  whole  of  his  time  to  search- 
ing out,  relieving,  and  comforting  those  who 
have  been  overlooked  by  others.  The  best 
influences  are  hoped  from  this  ministry  upon 
the  neglected  young  and  the  suffering  poor. 


LOWELL    HOSPITAL.  207 


LOWELL  HOSPITAL. 

In  1839,  the  manufacturing  Corporations 
purchased  the  >pacious  and  elegant  mansion 
house  erected  by  Kirk  Boott,  Esq.,  which,  with 
the  necessary  alterations,  cost  twenty  thousand 
dollars.  This  building  was  set  apart  as  a  hos- 
pital for  sick  operatives.  Its  commodious 
parlors  and  chambers  were  converted  into 
wards,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  practi- 
tioners in  Lowell  was  appointed  its  physician, 
and  resides  in  the  building.  All  persons  in 
the  employ  of  the  Corporations,  who  are  taken 
sick,  can  here  have  the  best  nursing  and  medi- 
cal attendance.  The  charges  are  four  dollars 
a  week  for  men,  and  three  dollars  for  women. 
If  the  patients  are  able,  they  are  to  pay  to 
the  superintendent ;  if  not  able,  the  Corpora- 
tions from  which  they  go  are  responsible,  and 
the  patients  are  then  responsible  to  the  Cor- 


208  LOWELL    DISPENSARY. 

porations.  The  number  of  patients  averages 
about  a  hundred  and  fifty  a  year.  Of  the  en- 
tire expenses  of  the  establishment,  about  three 
fourths  are  shared  by  the  Corporations. 


LOWELL  DISPENSARY. 

This  charitable  institution  was  incorporated 
in  1836.  Its  object  is  the  relief  of  the  poor, 
by  affording  medicines  and  medical  attendance 
gratuitously.  It  appoints  two  physicians,  each 
of  whom  has  a  section  of  the  city  under  his 
care  ;  and  all  subscribers  to  this. charity  com- 
mand their  services  in  behalf  of  the  sick  poor. 
I  To  this  class  the  dispensary  has  afforded  much 
timely  and  effectual  aid. 


HOWARD  BENEVOLENT  SOCIETY.   209 


HOWARD  BENEVOLENT  SOCIETY. 

It  was  organized  in  1840.  Its  object  is  to 
afford  encouragement  and  aid  to  the  moral  and 
industrious  poor.  By  its  committee  of  two  in 
each  ward,  all  deserving  objects  of  charity  are 
reported  to  a  board  of  trustees,  who  make 
gifts  or  loans  of  articles  necessary  for  relief 
and  comfort.  This  also  has  been  a  highly 
useful  public  charity. 


LOWELL   CEMETERY. 

This  is  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Concord 
River,  a  little  more  than  one  mile  above  its 
junction  with  the  Merrimack.  The  beautiful 
example  of  Mount  Auburn  has  been  imitated 
in  many  of  our  cities  and  large  towns,  but 
perhaps  in  none  with  more  success  than  in 

18* 


210  LOWELL    CEMETERY. 


this  cemetery.  Few  spots  can  combine  greater 
advantages,  in  its  variety  of  surface,  its  rich 
growth  of  wood,  in  the  graceful  curve  of  the 
river,  and  in  the  perfect  quiet  which  here 
reigns,  so  harmonious  with  the  solemn  pur- 
poses of  the  place.  The  visitor  to  Lowell 
should  not  omit  a  ride  to  this  "garden  of 
graves."  The  cemetery  contains  about  forty- 
four  acres,  and  was  solemnly  consecrated, 
June  20,  1841. 


CONCLUSION.  211 


CONCLUSION. 

We  have  now  traced  the  successive  steps  of 
the  growth  of  this  city.  We  have  described 
the  extent  of  its  business  and  the  character  of 
its  operatives,  and  have  alluded  to  the  various 
institutions  which  its  citizens  have  established 
for  purposes  of  education,  charity,  and  reli- 
gion. When  it  is  considered  that  Lowell  is 
not  yet  twenty  .-five  years  old,  its  present  con- 
dition cannot  be  contemplated  without  aston- 
ishment. No  where  but  in  New  England, 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Massachusetts  people, 
and  with  Boston  enterprise,  could  this  great 
success  have  been  wrought  out.  Other  manu- 
facturing villages  have  met  with  reverses  and 
failures,  but  in  Lowell  these  things  have  been 
unknown.  No  Corporation  has  ever  become 
embarrassed,  or  failed  to  meet  its  obligations, 


212  CONCLUSION. 

or  been  obliged  to  suspend  its  works.  The 
population  which  this  great  success  has  col- 
lected, possesses  rather  more  than  an  average 
share  of  New  England  intelligence,  as  it  is 
only  the  more  enterprising  who  remove  from 
their  paternal  homes,  and  with  this  a  full  aver- 
age share  of  New  England  good  morals.  Nor 
does  the  visitor  to  this  industrious  and  thriving 
city,  see  all  of  Lowell  even  in  Lowell.  When 
he  thinks  of  the  immense  quantities  of  raw 
materials  which  are  here  demanded,  of  the 
cotton,  wool,  iron,  coal,  dye-stuffs,  oils,  here 
used  up,  and  of  the  vast  number  of  persons 
employed  as  producers,  conveyers,  agents,  and 
clerks,  he  can  hardly  form  a  just  conception 
of  the  amount  of  business  which  Lowell  sets 
in  motion,  nor  estimate  the  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands to  whom  Lowell  gives  employment. 
The  effect  of  the  growth  of  this  city  upon  the 
surrounding  country  is  another  interesting  sub- 
ject in  political  economy.  It  furnishes  one  of 


o — 


CONCLUSION. 


the  best  markets  in  the  world  to  an  agricultu- 
ral district  within  a  circuit  of  thirty  miles  in 
diameter.  The  improvements  in  this  district, 
within  the  last  fifteen  years,  have  been  mani- 
festly great.  Farms  have  been  cleared  of  old 
mortgages,  buildings  and  fences  have  been 
repaired,  and  real  estate  has  risen  in  value  to 
an  extent  often  estimated  at  no  less  than  a 
million  dollars. 

.  In  regard  to  the  future  career  of  Lowell  it 
would  be  unwise  to  predict.  It  is  true  that 
the  water-power,  as  at  present  used,  is  ex- 
hausted. Ninety-one  mill  powers  have  been 
sold,  of  seventy  horse  power  each.  This  is 
all  the  power  of  the  river  at  the  very  lowest 
flow  of  water,  equal  to  six  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy  horse  power.  The  estimate 
of  a  mill-power  was  made  at  a  time  when  it 
was  proposed  to  use  much  less  machinery  in  a 
mill  than  is  now  run.  Nearly  two  of  the 
above  mill-powers  are  now  required  for  a 


214  CONCLUSION. 

mill;  so  that  the  actual  capabilities  of  Low- 
ell, as  the  water  is  now  used,  amount  to  the 
power  of  forty -five  mills.  This,  as  has  been 
said,  is  all  appropriated.  But,  by  the  intro- 
duction of  steam,  to  be  used  in  the  dry 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  by  improved  ma- 
chinery, which  will  work  with  less  friction 
and  require  less  power,  it  is  impossible  to 
foresee  to  what  extent  Lowell  may  yet  grow. 
It  is  estimated  that  full  one  half  of  all  the 
power  of  a  mill  is  required  to  perform  the 
single  process  of  spinning.  If,  as  is  supposed, 
the  use  of  mule-spinning  will  save  one  half  of 
this  power,  the  entire  operations  of  Lowell 
may  be  at  once  extended  twenty-five  per  cent. 
This  is  only  one  illustration  of  the  effect  of 
those  improvements  which  time  perpetually 
reveals. 

It  is  certain,  then,  that  the  growth  of  this 
place  will  continue  as  long  as  the  general 
prosperity  of  the  country  endures,  and  new 


CONCLUSION.  215 


improvements  in  science  and  art  are  brought 
to  light.  The  great  experiment  of  Lowell  is 
an  experiment  of  another  kind :  it  is  an  ex- 
periment whether  we  can  preserve  here  a 
pure  and  virtuous  population ;  whether  there 
are  no  causes  secretly  at  work,  and  to  be  de- 
veloped in  the  course  of  thirty  or  forty  years, 
to  lower  our  standard,  and  to  sink  our  charac- 
ter ;  whether  we  can  run  a  career  of  half  a 
century  free  from  the  corrupting  and  debas- 
ing influences  which  have  almost  universally 
marked  manufacturing  cities  abroad.  And  a 
great  experiment  it  is.  We  are  deciding  the 
question,  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but  for  nu- 
merous other  places  around  us  —  indeed,  for 
New  England  itself.  The  branch  of  industry 
here  established  is  every  year  rooting  itself 
more  firmly  throughout  this  section  of  our 
land,  the  whole  of  which  will,  in  a  degree, 
repeat  the  career  which  we  ourselves  run. 
There  have  been  laid  for  us  here  the  founda- 


216  CONCLUSION. 


tions  of  a  great  success  —  a  method  of  busi- 
ness well  devised,  and  carefully  adjusted  -part  ' 
to  part,  a  system  of  public  instruction  planned 
on  a  broad  and  generous  scale,  churches,  Sun- 
day schools,  libraries,  charities,  numberless 
institutions  to  enlighten,  guide,  and  bless  this 
growing  city.  Have  we  wisdom,  and  firm- 
ness, and  virtue  enough,  to  meet  our  dangers 
successfully  ?  That  is  the  true  problem  to  be 
solved.  May  we  look  to  that  good  Being  who 
gives  wisdom,  and  strengthens  virtue,  and  to 
Him  shall  be  ascribed  the  success. 


APPENDIX. 


There  are  several  men,  now  no  longer  among  the 
living,  to  whose  services  Lowell  is  greatly  indebted  for 
her  prosperity,  and  whom  we  may  appropriately  notice 
in  this  appendix.  The  Nestor  of  Massachusetts  man- 
ufacturers, whose  name  we  have  already  mentioned, 
and  shall  have  occasion  to  repeat,  is  still  alive ;  and  we 
trust  that  the  fact  will  long  preclude  that  notice  of  his 
valuable  services  which  they  would  otherwise  receive. 
We  begin  with 

FRANCIS  CABOT  LOWELL, 

Of  whose  name  and  memory  our  city  is  a  monument. 
His  connection  with  the  manufacturing  business  will 
not  be  understood,  without  some  brief  sketch  of  the 
progress  of  that  business  in  New-England. 

The  "  Beverly  Cotton  Factory "  was  the  first  com- 
pany in  this  country  to  engage  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton.  It  was  organized  in  1787,  with  a  capital  of 
ninety  thousand  pounds  sterling.  The  Messrs.  Cabots, 
Thorndike,  and  Fisher,  of  Beverly,  and  Henry  Higgin- 
son,  of  Boston,  were  its  chief  proprietors.  John  Cabot 


218  APPENDIX. 


and  Joshua  Fisher  were  appointed  agents  for  the  man- 
agement of  its  concerns.  It  continued  in  operation 
upwards  of  fifteen  years,  making  corduroys,  bed-tick- 
ings, cotton  velvets  —  durable  and  approved  fabrics  ; 
yet  the  business  was  not  profitable,  the  loss  having 
been  as  great  as  ninety  cents  on  the  dollar. 

Mr.  Samuel  Slater  came  from  England  in  Novem- 
ber, of  1789.  In  December,  1790,  he  established  a 
small  factory  at  Pawtucket,  near  Providence,  11. 1.  In 
1793,  another  factory  was  built  by  Messrs.  Brown, 
Almy,  and  Slater,  in  Pawtucket,  in  which  they  set  in 
motion,  July  12th,  of  that  year,  seventy-two  spindles. 
For  many  years  the  progress  of  the  business  was  ex- 
tremely slow,  and  as  late  as  January,  1807,  there  were 
but  four  thousand  spindles  in  operation  in  Pawtucket 
and  its  neighborhood.  These  supplied  yarns  for  hand- 
weaving,  and  the  cloth  that  was  made  was  almost  en- 
tirely of  family  manufacture.  At  that  time  the  country 
received  nearly  all  its  cotton  doth  from  Great  Britain, 
and  the  East  Indies.  In  1807  and  1808,  there  were 
imported  from  Calcutta  fifty-three  millions  of  yards, 
principally  of  coarse  cotton  goods,  and  worth,  as  prices 
then  were,  over  twelve  millions  of  dollars.  In  1810, 
there  were  made  in  all  the  factories  in  the  United 
States,  as  appears  by  returns  made  by  order  of  Mr. 
Gallatin,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  only  eight 
hundred  and  fifty-six  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty- 
five  yards  of  cotton  cloth,  viz.  — 


APPENDIX.  219 


111  Rhode  Island, 735,319 

Massachusetts, 36,000 

Vermont, 2,500 

New-Jersey, 1 7,500 

Pennsylvania, 65,326 


Total, 856,645 

This  is  not  so  many  yards  as  four  of  the  establishments 
in  Lowell  can  now  turn  out  in  one  Aveek.  The  whole 
number  of  yards  made  in  the  United  States  in  that 
year.  v/a>  sixteen  million  five  hundred  eighty-one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  ninety-nine.  Of  this,  fifteen 
million  seven  hundred  and  twenty-four  thousand  six 
hundred  and  fifty-four  yards  were  of  family  manufac- 
ture, so  imperfect  was  the  machinery  then  in  use. 
The  weaving  of  the  yarn  alone  cost  double  the  whole 
process  of  making  the  fabric,  after  the  introduction  of 
the  pmver-loom,  in  1815. 

Francis  Cabot  Lowell,  son  of  Hon.  John  Lowell, 
LL.  P.,  and  grandson  of  the  Rev.  John  Lowell,  of 
Newburyport,  was  born  in  that  town,  in  1774.  He 
was  graduated  at  Harvard  College,  in  1793. 

In  a  Memoir  of  Mr.  Lowell's  son.  John  Lowell,  Jr. 
the  founder  of  that  course  of  lectures  in  Boston, 
known  as  the  Lowell  Institute.  Mr.  Edward  Everett 
thus  writes:  —  "In  1810.  Mr.  Francis  Cabot  Lowell 
was  induced  to  visit  England  with  his  family,  on  ac- 
count of  the  state  of  his  health.  The  vast  importance 
of  manufacturing  industry,  as  a  source  of  national 


220  APPENDIX. 


wealth,  was  no  doubt  impressed  with  new  force  upon 
his  mind,  in  consequence  of  his  observations  in  that 
country,  and  some  branches  of  manufactures  were  ex- 
amined by  him  with  care;  but  it  is  not  known  that  he 
paid  particular  attention  to  that  of  cotton.  On  his  re- 
turn home,  and  shortly  after  the  commencement  of  the 
war  of  1812,  Mr.  Lowell  was  so  strongly  convinced  of 
the  practicability  of  establishing  that  manufacture  in 
the  United  States,  that  he  proposed  to  a  kinsman  and 
friend  (Mr.  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson)  to  make  the  exper- 
iment on  an  ample  scale.  The  original  project  only 
contemplated  the  weaving  of  cotton  by  machinery. 
The  power-loom,  although  it  had  been  for  some  time 
invented  in  England,  was  far  less  used  in  that  country, 
in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  cotton  spun,  than 
at  the  present  day,  and  was  wholly  unknown  in  the 
United  States.  After  deliberation,  the  enterprise  was 
resolved  upon.  A  model  of  a  common  loom  was  pro- 
cured by  Mr.  Lowell  and  his  friend  —  both  equally 
ignorant  of  the  practical  details  of  the  mode  in  which 
the  power-loom  was  constructed  —  and  their  joint 
attention  was  bestowed  on  the  re-invention  of  that 
machine.  The  winter  of  1812 — 13  was  passed  at 
Waltham,  where  a  water-power  had  been  purchased,  in 
bringing  the  loom  to  perfection.  On  being  completed, 
it  was  found  to  answer  the  purpose  so  entirely,  as  to 
warrant  the  immediate  construction,  on  the  same  plan, 
of  all  the  looms  needed  for  the  establishment."  —  Page 
31  of  Memoir,  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  Lowell  Lec- 
tures by  John  Gorham  Palfrey. 


APPENDIX.  221 


Those  wore  the  first  power-looms  that  were,  brought 
into  successful  operation  in  this  country.  They  were 
tho  invention,  as  is  stated  above,  of  Messrs  Lowell  and 
.Jackson,  aided  by  one  important  mechanical  move- 
ment, which  the  genius  of  .Mr.  Taul  Moody  supplied. 
Power-looms  had  been  invented  in  this  country  prior 
to  that  of  .Messrs.  Lowell  and  Jackson's,  and  no  less 
than  twenty-live  models  had  boon  patented  at  Washing- 
ton, at  the  time  they  set  theirs  up.  Hut  theirs  was  the 
first  that  wove  cloth  to  any  considerable  amount.  A 
machine  upon  which  he  had  spent  so  much  thought 
and  time,  was  naturally  an  object  of  great  interest  to 
Mr.  Lowell.  A  friend  of  his,  once  finding  him  almost 
wholly  lost  in  thought,  while  intently  surveying  the 
model,  asked  him  what  he  could  find  in  that  machine 
which  so  absorbed  his  attention :  Mr.  Lowell  replied, 
"  that  he  had  been  reflecting  upon  the  immense  results 
which  that  piece  of  mechanism  was  destined  to  work 
out,  and  he  would  make  the  prediction  that,  within  fifty 
year*,  cotton  cloth  would  be  sold  for  fourpence  a  yard." 
At  a  time  when  ten  cents  was  paid  per  yard,  for  weav- 
ing alone,  and  the  cloth  cost  thirty-three  cents  per  yard, 
this  prediction  was  regarded  as  the  effusion  of  an  en- 
thusiast. It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  prophecy  has 
been  literally  fulfilled. 

In  a  speech,  made  in  the  Massachusetts  House  of 
Representatives,  in  January,  1828,  Mr.  Nathan  Apple- 
ton,  while  referring  to  the  successful  efforts  of  Mr. 
Lowell,  has  the  following  brief  but  emphatic  sentence : 
"  Seldom  had  a  mind  of  so  much  science  been  turned 

19* 


222  APPENDIX. 


to  this  subject,  and  never  was  a  triumph  more  com- 
plete.'* 

In  consequence,  however,  of  the  ill  success  which 
had  attended  previous  attempts,  the  public  feeling  was 
strong  against  any  further  manufacturing  efforts.  It 
is  stated  by  Henry  Lee,  Esq.  of  Waltham,  in  one  of  a 
series  of  interesting  articles  contributed  by  him  to  the 
Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  in  1830,  that  when  Mr.  Lowell 
first  made  the  proposal  to  engage  in  the  business, 
"many  of  his  nearest  connections  used  all  their  influ- 
ence, to  dissuade  him  from  the  pursuit  of  what  they 
deemed  a  visionary  and  dangerous  scheme.  These, 
too,  were  among  those  who  knew,  or  thought  that  they 
knew,  the  full  strength  of  his  mind,  the  accuracy  of  his 
calculations,  his  industry,  patience,  and  perseverance, 
and,  withal,  his  power  and  influence  over  others  whose 
aid  was  essential  to  his  success ;  they  still  thought  him 
mad,  and  did  not  recover  from  that  error  till  they  them- 
selves had  lost  their  own  senses,  of  which  they  evinced 
svinptoms  at  least,  by  shortly  purchasing  into  the  busi- 
ness of  this  visionary  schemer  at  thirty,  forty,  fifty,  and 
even  sixty  per  cent,  advance." 

From  the  Memoir  by  Mr.  Everett,  we  again  quote : 
"  Mr.  Francis  Cabot  Lowell  repaired  to  Washington 
in  the  winter  of  1816;  and,  in  confidential  intercourse 
with  some  of  the  leading  members  of  Congress,  he 
fixed  their  attention  on  the  importance,  the  prospects, 
and  the  dangers  of  the  cotton  manufacture,  and  the 
policy  of  shielding  it  from  foreign  competition  by  leg- 
islative protection.  Constitutional  objections,  at  that 


APPENDIX.  223 


time,  were  unheard  of.  The  Middle  States,  under  the 
lead  of  Pennsylvania,  wore  strong  in  the  manufactur- 
ing interest.  The  West  was  about  equally  divided. 
The  New  England  States,  attached,  from  the  settle- 
ment of  the  country,  to  commercial  and  navigating 
pursuits,  were  less  disposed  to  embark  in  a  new  policy, 
which  was  thought  adverse  to  some  branches  of  foreign 
trade,  and  particularly  to  the  trade  with  India,  from 
which  the  supply  of  coarse  cottons  was  principally  de- 
rived. The  planting  States,  and  eminently  South 
Carolina,  then  represented  by  several  gentlemen  of  dis- 
tinguished ability,  held  the  balance  between  the  rival 
interests.  To  the  planting  interest  it  was  demonstrated 
by  Mr.  Lowell,  that,  by  the  establishment  of  the  cotton 
manufacture  in  the  United  States,  the  southern  planter 
would  greatly  increase  his  market.  He  would  furnish 
the  raw  material  for  all  those  American  fabrics  which 
should  take  the  place  of  manufactures  imported  from 
India,  or  partly  made  in  England  from  India  cotton. 
He  would  thus,  out  of  his  own  produce,  be  enabled  to 
pay  for  all  the  supplies  which  he  required  from  the 
north.  This  simple  and  conclusive  view  of  the  subject 
prevailed,  and  determined  a  portion  of  the  south  to 
throw  its  weight  into  the  scale  in  favor  of  a  protective 
tariff.  The  minimum  duty  on  cotton  fabrics,  the  cor- 
ner stone  of  the  system,  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Lowell, 
and  is  believed  to  have  been  an  original  conception  on 
his  part.  It  was  recommended  by  Mr.  Lowndes ;  it 
was  advocated  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  was  incorporated 
into  the  law  of  1816.  To  this  provision  of  law,  the 


224  APPENDIX. 


fruit  of  the  intelligence  and  influence  of  Mr.  Lowell, 
New  England  owes  that  branch  of  industry  which  has 
made  her  amends  for  the  diminution  of  her  foreign 
trade;  which  has  kept  her  prosperous  under  the  ex- 
hausting drain  of  her  population  to  the  West ;  which 
has  brought  a  market  for  his  agricultural  produce  to 
the  farmer's  door ;  and  which,  while  it  has  conferred 
these  blessings  on  this  part  of  the  country,  has  been 
productive  of  good,  and  nothing  but  good,  to  every 
other  portion  of  it.  For  these  public  benefits  —  than 
which  none,  not  directly  connected  with  the  establish- 
ment of  our  liberties,  are  of  a  higher  order,  or  of  a 
more  comprehensive  scope  —  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Francis  Cabot  Lowell ;  and 
in  conferring  his  name  upon  the  NOBLE  CITY  of  the 
arts  in  our  neighborhood,  a  monument  not  less  appro- 
priate than  honorable  has  been  reared  to  his  memory. 
What  memorial  of  a  great  public  benefactor  so  becom- 
ing as  the  bestowal  of  his  name  on  a  prosperous  com- 
munity, which  has  started,  as  it  were,  from  the  soil  at 
the  touch  of  his  wand  ?  Pyramids  and  mausoleums 
may  crumble  to  the  earth,  aud  brass  and  marble  mingle 
with  the  dust  they  cover,  but  the  pure  and  well  dtf- 
served  renown,  which  is  thus  incorporated  with  the 
busy  life  of  an  intelligent  people,  will  be  remembered, 
till  the  long  lapse  of  ages  and  the  vicissitudes  of  for- 
tune shall  reduce  all  of  America  to  oblivion  and  de- 
cay." Pages  37—  39. 

Mr.  Lowell  died  in  1817,  at  the  age  of  forty-three. 


APPENDIX.  225 


PAUL  MOODY. 

When  the  history  of  the  progress  of  mechanical  in- 
vention in  this  country  shall  be  written,  the  name  of 
Paul  Moody  will  be  honored  as  one  of  the  chief  men 
in  this  lino  of  distinction.  He  was  born  in  Newbury, 
in  1777.  He  was  engaged  in  the  manufacturing  busi- 
ness in  Amesbury,  in  partnership  with  Mr.  Ezra  Wor- 
then.  In  1814  he  removed  to  Waltham,  and  rendered 
the  most  valuable  assistance  in  starting  the  first  mill  in 
that  town.  A  few  anecdotes,  illustrative  of  his  talents 
and  success,  will  constitute  the  only  notice  of  his  life 
which  ran  here  be  taken.  He  supplied  an  important 
movement  in  the  power-loom  invented  by  Messrs. 
Lowell  and  Jackson,  to  which  that  machine  owed  its 
successful  operation.  He  invented  what  is  called  the 
"  dead  spindle,"  which  was  introduced  at  Waltham, 
and  is  still  used  throughout  the  mills  at  Lowell.  The 
Rhode  Island  machinery  employed  the  "live  spindle," 
copied  from  the  English.  The  product  of  the  former 
is  greater,  though  it  requires  more  power.  About  the 
time  of  starting  their  mill  at  Waltham,  Mr.  Lowell 
and  Mr.  Moody  went  to  Taunton,  Mass.,  to  procure  a 
machine  for  winding  the  filling  upon  the  bobbin.  Just 
as  the  former  gentleman  was  concluding  a  contract  for 
these  machines,  Mr.  Moody  suggested,  that  if  they 
would  return  to  Waltham  without  them,  he  thought  he 
could  invent  a  machine  to  spin  the  yarn  upon  the  bob- 
bin in  the  same  conical  form  in  which  the  winder  put  it 


226  APPENDIX. 


on,  and  thus  supersede  the  necessity  of  the  interven- 
tion of  that  machine.  Upon  their  return  he  invented 
what  is  called  the  "  filling  frame,"  a  machine  which  he 
at  once  perfected,  and  which  is  still  used  both  at  Wal- 
tham  and  at  Lowell.  Near  the  same  time  Mr.  Lowell 
told  Mr.  Moody  that  they  must  have  a  "  governor,-'  to 
regulate  the  speed  of  their  wheels.  This  was  an  ap- 
paratus of  which  Mr.  Moody  had  never  heard,  and  the 
only  information  concerning  it  which  his  friend  could 
supply  was  that,  having  seen  one  in  England,  he  re- 
membered there  were  two  iron  balls  suspended  on  two 
rods,  connected  at  one  end  like  a  pair  of  tongs.  When 
the  wheels  were  in  too  rapid  motion  these  balls  were 
driven  apart,  and  produced  a  partial  closing  of  the 
water  gate  ;  when,  on  the  other  hand,  their  motion  was 
slow,  the  balls  approached  each  other  and  effected  a 
greater  opening  of  the  gate  by  which  an  increased 
motion  was  obtained.  This  conversation  was  held  in 
Boston,  at  Mr.  Lowell's  house.  The  gentlemen  sep- 
arated with  an  understanding  that  a  "  governor ''  should 
be  forthwith  ordered  from  England.  Mr.  Moody,  on 
his  ride  to  Waltham,  could  not  get  those  balls  out  of 
his  mind.  They  were  flying  round  in  his  brain  the 
whole  of  that  day  and  night.  The  next  morning  he 
went  to  the  shop,  and  chalked  out  the  plan  of  some 
wheels,  which  he  ordered  to  be  made.  Not  long  after 
this  Mr.  Lowell  was  at  Waltham,  and  Mr.  Moody  in- 
quired if  the  "  governor "  had  been  ordered  from 
England.  On  learning  that  it  had  not,  Mi*.  Moody 
produced  the  "  governor  "  which  he  had  made.  It  was 


APPENDIX.  'J-J7 


set    uj)    in    th<>   mill,    and   that   identical    one 

•ul  use  until  K<:>±  Tlir  " -ovcrnors''  now 
n>cd  in  this  city  are  all  copied  from  that.  Mr.  Moody. 
with  the  a>si>tance  of  Mr.  Louell,  was  the  inventor  of 
tin1  "double  speeder.''  The  machine  was  set  in  opera- 
tion at  Waltham  and  was  patented.  Some  time  after 
this  the  patent  right  was  infringed  upon  by  some  me- 
chanic's who  had  worked  upon  the  machine  at  Wal- 
tham. and  a  prosecution  ensued.  The  ca<c  was  tried 
before  Judge  Story,  and  was  argued  by  Mr.  Webster. 
The  late  Mr.  Bowditch,  then  of  Salem,  was  requested 
to  examine  the  principles,  both  of  the  original  and  the 
imitated  machines,  in  order  to  appear  as  a  witne.-s  at 
the  trial.  Mr.  Bowditch  was  afterwards  heard  to  say 
that  seldom  had  his  mind  been  more  severely  taxed, 
for  the  "  double  speeder  "  required  for  its  construction 
the  greatest  mathematical  power  of  any  piece  of  me- 
chani>m  with  which  he  had  become  acquainted.  The 
idea  of  this  machine  originated  with  Mr.  Moody,  but 
the  mathematical  calculations  necessary  for  its  con- 
struction were  made  by  Mr.  Lowell. 

Beside  the  '•''  double   speeder,"  the  Waltham  Com- 
pany patented  a  spinning  fr.une.  dressing  frame,  and 
.  all  the  invention  of  Mr.  Moody.     It  is  an  evi- 
dence of  the  great   value  attached  to  Mr.  Moody's  ser- 
lat   when  in   1823  he  went  to  Lowell,  taking 
with  him  models  and  mechanics  from  Waltham.  the 
company  in  the  latter  plac€  was  remunerated  for  the 
the  payment  to  them  of  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars.     Mr.  Moody  was  at  the  head  of  the  machine 


228  APPENDIX. 


shop  in  Lowell  until  the  time  of  his  death,  July  7, 
1831.  No  man  could  be  more  valuable  in  the  place  he 
filled,  not  only  by  his  great  talent  in  inventing,  but  by 
a  rare  tact  in  arranging  and  combining  machinery,  in 
convenient,  economical,  and  effective  forms.  Modest 
and  unpretending  —  a  "  born  gentleman  "  in  his  man- 
ners, as  one  called  him,  and  of  the  strictest  integrity  of 
character,  he  was  greatly  esteemed  while  living,  and 
was  much  mourned  when  dead.  Had  he  lived  in  Eng- 
land, he  would  have  won  for  himself  some  of  the  high- 
est honors  which  that  country  is  prompt  to  bestow 
upon  great  inventive  genius.  It  is  hoped  that  the 
manufacturing  companies  in  Lowell  will  yet  do  some- 
tiling  to  perpetuate  the  name  of  one  to  whom  they  are 
so  greatly  indebted. 


KIRK  BOOTT. 

The  early  history  of  Lowell  is  a  history  of  the  ser- 
vices of  this  gentleman.  It  received  the  deep  impress 
of  his  character,  and  is  more  indebted  to  his  energy 
and  great  business  talents,  than  to  those  of  any  other 
individual.  He  was  here  when  the  first  mill  was  erected, 
superintending  the  interests  of  the  Merrimack  Manu- 
facturing Company,  and  was  appointed  to  the  agency 
of  the  Locks  and  Canals,  upon  the  reorganization  of  that 
Corporation  in  1825.  From  that  time  to  his  death 
he  was  the  master  spirit  of  the  place,  laying  out  plans 


AIM'KXDIX.  229 


for  the  extension  of  its  works,  devoting  the  powers  of  a 
strong  and  cultivated  mind  to  its  prosperity,  and  observ- 
ing with  the  holiest  satisfaction  every  step  it  took 
toward-  the  ^reat  city  to  which  lie  lived  to  see  it  attain. 
Sonic  hrief  notice  of  him  here  cannot  he  inappropriate 
to  this  hook. 

Mr.  l.oott  was  horn  in  Boston  in  1791.  At  an  early 
lie  was  sent  to  Knirland,  and  for  some  time  was  a 
memher  of  the  Rugby  School,  since  made  celebrated 
by  the  late,  Dr.  Arnold.  On  his  return  he  entered 
Harvard  College,  but  did  not  remain  there  long  enough 
to  receive  a  degree.  Choosing  a  military  profession, 
his  father  obtained  for  him  a  commission  in  the  Eng- 
lish army,  with  which  Mr.  Boott  was  connected  about 
live  years.  He  served  in  the  Peninsular  war  under  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  and  commanded  a  detachment  at 
the  siege  of  San  Sebastian  in  July  1813.  After  this 
his  regiment  was  ordered  to  New  Orleans,  to  SCITC 
against  the  United  States,  in  the  war  then  existing  be- 
tween the  two  countries.  Mr.  Boott  obtained  leave  to 
withdraw,  and  entered  a  military  academy,  where  he 
obtained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  arts  which  were 
afterwards  of  such  eminent  service  to  him,  engineering 
and  surveying.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1817, 
Mr.  Boott  returned  to  Boston,  and  entered  into  busi- 
ness with  his  brothers.  He  did  not  long  remain  in  this 
employment;  and  the  summer  of  1821  found  him  at 
leisure.  Then  occurred  one  of  those  incidents  which, 
though  they  appear  trifling  and  chance  at  the  time, 
often  give  direction  and  shape  to  a  man's  whole  life. 


230  APPENDIX. 


Passing  a  day  at  Nahant,  in  company  with  Mr.  Patrick 
T.  Jackson,  1he  latter  gentleman  expressed  great  de- 
light in  having  even  that  brief  respite  from  his  numer- 
ous and  pressing  cares.  Mr.  Boott  expressed  a  wish 
that  he  had  cares  too,  and  offered  to  accept  of  any  post 
of  service  which  Mr.  Jackson  might  assign  him.  The,- 
conversation  soon  resulted  in  an  offer  to  Mr.  Boott  of 
the  superintendence  of  the  new  works  at  East  Chelms- 
ford.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  Mr.  Boott  visited 
this  place.  In  the  succeeding  spring  he  came  here  to 
reside,  and  from  that  time  gave  his  whole  zeal  and 
strength  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the  new  village 
and  town.  He  watched  its  growth  with  a  paternal 
interest,  resolving  here  to  live  and  die. 

It  is  impossible  to  present  any  extended  account  of 
his  services.  As  a  man  of  prompt  business  habits,  of 
great  power  to  manage  men,  and  to  grasp  and  master 
extensive  and  complicated  details,  rarely  has  he  been 
excelled.  Naturally  of  a  strong  and  impetuous  will, 
he  made  every  thing  yield  to  the  perseverance  and 
energy  of  his  character.  It  is  related  that  once,  in  his 
absence,  his  workmen  finding  it  difficult  to  make  a  cur- 
rent of  water  flow  in  a  desired  channel,  it  was  proposed 
that  Mr.  Boott's  hat  and  walking  stick  should  be 
brought  and  laid  on  the  bank,  they  feeling  sure  that 
then  even  the  water  would  obey.  At  the  same  time, 
by  his  high  sense  of  honor,  his  lofty  integrity,  his 
quick  perception  and  decided  practice  of  what  was  just 
and  right,  he  had  always  a  hold  upon  the  respect  and 
affections  of  those  he  employed.  Towards  the  close 


AITKNDIX.  231 


of  his  life,  the  mechanics  of  Lowell  had  a  full  length 
portrait  of  Mr.  Boott  taken  by  Harding,  which  now 
han-N  in  thrir  Hall.  In  whatever  situation  Mr.  Boott 
was  placed,  as  representative  of  Lowell  in  the  LegMa- 
ture.  a*  undertaking  more. of  the  Company's  cares  than 
any  other  two  men  could  meet,  or  as  it<  agent  abroad 
to  procure  skilful  arti/ans  —  for  whieli  purpose  he 
once  or  twice  visited  England  —  he  proved  himself 
fully  competent  to  his  post.  His  constitution  was  much 
impaired  by  a  long  camp  sickness,  while  in  the  army, 
and  by  a  spinal  complaint  from  which  he  suffered 
many  years,  and  of  which  he  finally  died.  On  the 
morning  of  April  11,  1837,  he  dropped  dead  from  his 
chaise. 


WARREN  COLBURN. 

Kine  years  of  Mr.  Colburn's  life  were  spent  in  Low- 
ell, as  superintendent  of  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing 
Company.  A  few  pages  of  an  appendix  afford  no 
place  to  do  any  thing  like  justice  to  a  man  of  the  rare 
genius,  and  great  beauty  of  character,  which  Mr.  Col- 
burn  possessed.  He  was  born  in  Dedham,  in  1793, 
and  for  several  years  was  a  practical  mechanic  in  that 
town.  Under  the  impulse  of  a  strong  thirst  for  know- 
ledge, he  commenced,  rather  late  in  life,  and  in  struggle 
with  untoward  circumstances,  preparation  for  Harvard 
University,  which  he  entered  at  the  age  of  twenty-four. 


232  APPENDIX. 


He  graduated  from  that  Institution  in  1820.  While 
there  he  developed  that  fondness  for  mathematical 
studies,  which  constituted  a  remarkable  feature  of  his 
mind,  and  as  an  undergraduate,  rea-d  through  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  great  work  of  Laplace.  For  a  few 
years  he  taught  a  school  for  boys  in  Boston,  and  while 
thus  engaged,  wrote  and  published  the  well-known 
works  on  Arithmetic,  which  have  revolutionized  our 
system  of  elementary  instruction  in  that  science.  In 
the  April  of  1823,  Mr.  Colburn  went  to  Waltham 
to  take  charge  of  the  upper  mills  in  that  town ;  but 
in  little  more  than  a  year  he  was  invited  to  Lowell, 
to  fill  the  office  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Mr. 
Worthen. 

While  in  Lowell,  Mr.  Colburn  prepared  and  publish- 
ed his  work  on  Algebra.  His  deep  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject of  education  led  him  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
care  of  the  public  schools  of  the  town ;  and  by  his  la- 
bors, in  connection  with  those  of  the  first  minister  of 
Lowell,  of  whose  services  we  are  not  now  permitted  to 
speak  in  the  terms  which  they  merit,  was  our  present 
excellent  system  of  public  instruction  matured  and 
established.  A  man  of  great  mechanical  skill,  Mr. 
Colburn  introduced  many  new  improvements  and  ap- 
plications of  power,  by  which  he  rendered  important 
service  to  the  manufacturing  interest.  Rarely  has  it . 
happened  to  any  one,  by  a  spirit  of  the  truest  benevo- 
lence, by  peculiar  charms  of  social  intercourse,  and  a 
manifestation  of  high  moral  worth,  to  leave  a  deeper 
impress,  not  only  on  the  minds  of  near  friends  by 


Al'l'I.NDIX.  233 


whom  he  was  beloved,  but  in  those  wider  circles  in 
which  ho  had  his  walk  in  life.  Mi'.  Colburn  died 
September  13th,  1833. 


LUTHER  LAWRENCE. 

During  the  eight  Inst  years  of  his  life  Mr.  Lawrence 
was  a  citizen  of  Lowell ;  and  although  not  directly 
connected  with  the  manufacturing  interest,  he  exerted 
an  important  influence  in  the  growth  and  prosperity  of 
this  place,  as  a  man  of  great  public  spirit,  as  President 
of  the  Railroad  Bank,  and  the  second  Mayor  of  the 
city,  in  which  office  he  died.  He  was  born  in  Groton, 
September  28,  1778,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1801,  and  entered  into  successful  professional  practice 
in  his  native  town,  where  he  held  various  offices  of 
honor  and  trust.  In  1831  he  removed  to  Lowell.  In 
1838  he  was  elected  Mayor  of  the  city,  the  duties  of 
which  office  he  discharged  with  great  fidelity  and  suc- 
cess. Soon  after  his  re-election  in  1839,  his  life  was 
suddenly  terminated  by  a  fall.  By  a  slight  trip  of  his 
foot  he  was  precipitated  into  the  wheel  pit  of  a  mill, 
which  produced  almost  instantaneous  death,  April  1 7, 
1839. 


234  APPENDIX. 


ROBERT  MEANS. 

To  these  names  of  men  whom  Lowell  has  occasion 
to  remember  with  honor  and  gratitude,  we  may  add 
the  name  of  Robert  Means,  the  late  agent  of  the  Suf- 
folk Manufacturing  Company.  Mr.  Means  was  born  in 
Amherst,  N.  H.,  was  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in 
1807,  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Jeremiah  Mason, 
then  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  and  was  for  many  years  in 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  his  native  town.  He 
removed  to  Lowell  in  1831  to  take  charge  of  the  Suffolk 
mills,  in  which  station  he  remained  until  the  time  of 
his  death,  September  27,  1 842.  Mr.  Means  was  a  gen- 
tleman in  the  true  English  sense  of  that  word ;  and  the 
remembrance  of  his  fine  personal  appearance,  of  his 
courtly  manners,  and  high  moral  influence,  will  not 
soon  pass  away. 


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